There’s a Scoring Void, But Palffy’s Not Filling It

With Adam Deadmarsh sidelined indefinitely because of a head injury and Jason Allison struggling to get back into “game-ready” shape while playing through a nagging knee injury, the Kings need Ziggy Palffy to step up.

Before his late third-period goal in the Kings’ 2-1 loss to St. Louis on Saturday, Palffy had only one goal in his previous 12 games.

Palffy led the Kings last season with 32 goals, including seven multi-goal games. This season, Palffy has scored 13 times in 37 games with only one multi-goal game.

Once injuries started to hit the Kings, Palffy was counted on to make the players around him better. Sometimes, he has. But there have been plenty of times when Palffy has been just another player on the ice.

However, Coach Andy Murray continues to stick with Palffy (who played nearly 27 minutes against the Blues) because he understands that the high-scoring winger has had to play in a patchwork lineup.

“Everyone wants to do so much to help us,” Murray said. “Some guys are not quite at the level -- health-wise -- where they want to be. We’re trying to do things but we haven’t been as smart as we would like.”

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The Kings, who will play their fifth game in eight days tonight against San Jose, did not practice Sunday because Murray wanted his team to spend a day away from the game.

Trying to come up with the right practice mix for his injury-plagued team has been a dilemma for Murray.

“Because we’re playing all of the time, you have to be real careful,” he said. “I don’t know what it was, maybe it’s been the injuries or those long trip, but it just seems that the games are more compressed this year.

“Another problem is that we have guys coming back from injury and you want them fresh for the games. You don’t want to push them too hard in practice and they don’t catch up on the conditioning side.”

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TONIGHT

vs. San Jose, 7:30

Fox Sports Net

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- KSPN (710).

Records -- Kings 17-19-4-3, Sharks 16-18-5-3.

Record vs. Sharks -- 0-1.

Update -- Defenseman Mathieu Schneider, who did not play Saturday because of a groin injury, could be back in the lineup. But defenseman Aaron Miller (foot) and forward Bryan Smolinski (eye) will be out for at least another two weeks.

Tickets -- (888) 546-4752.