Three things we learned from the Kings’ 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks

Breaks often don’t go the Kings’ way

And we’re not talking only about good fortune on the ice, which Drew Doughty said didn’t favor the Kings on Henrik Sedin’s second-period score Wednesday.

“Their winning goal was definitely pretty lucky,” Doughty said. “It hit a few things and then bounced off the ice and then was tipped in.”

We’re talking about breaks in the schedule. Going back to the preseason, the Kings have had five breaks of at least three days this season and they lost coming out of each of those, getting outscored by 10 goals. The Kings, playing Wednesday for the first time in five days because of the NHL’s Christmas vacation, even had trouble coming out of the breaks between periods in Vancouver, giving up the goal to Sedin 23 seconds after the first intermission.

“I felt really good about our team,” Doughty said. “Everyone seemed really fresh, really sharp. And everyone was excited to be back with the boys. So I was pretty frustrated with our start.”

It was a start that included three penalties in the first 11 minutes, one of which Vancouver turned into a goal.

“We had good energy,” agreed Coach Darryl Sutter, who said the time off wasn’t to blame. “We don’t have a lot of scoring in our lineup.”

Which brings us to the second thing we learned Wednesday:

The Kings’ scoring slump is real … and may be deepening with forward Tyler Toffoli on injured reserve.

The Kings outshot the Canucks’ 31-8 over the final two periods but managed to get just one of those in the net – and even Tanner Pearson’s third-period shot might not have made it if it hadn’t hit the stick of Vancouver’s Alexandre Burrows first.

The Kings have scored just 10 times in their last six games and have just one player, Jeff Carter, with more than eight goals on the season. The Edmonton Oilers, whom the Kings play Thursday, have four players with 10 or more goals.

“In this league you’ve got to score goals, you’ve got to produce if you want to win,” said forward Kyle Clifford, who has two goals in 28 games. “So we have to do that as a team.”

They’re certainly not doing that as individuals. The newly-reunited top line of Anze Kopitar, Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown has combined for three goals in the last 18 games and has just eight on the season. Only two teams in the Western Conference have scored fewer goals than the Kings’ 88.

Maybe home cooking will solve the problems

The Kings are one of five teams in the NHL with at least 10 or more wins at home and at least 10 losses on the road. And they’ve been on the road a lot lately, with Thursday’s game at Edmonton ending a season-long streak of nine straight road games.

The Kings have won three of those but they have a chance to get better at home, where they’ll play eight of their next nine games beginning Saturday.

“We don’t play much different every game,” Sutter said. “I know it sounds repetitious, but we go play our game and then try and figure who the other team’s lineup is and try and figure out who ours is and go from there. We don’t put a whole lot of emphasis on other than being ourselves.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

Twitter: kbaxter11