Kings hope to end futility in snowy Buffalo

Greetings from Buffalo, where it was snowing sideways Tuesday afternoon before the Kings were scheduled to face the Sabres, beginning a stretch of nine straight road games.

The Kings might have had reasons besides the weather to dread coming here: They’ve won one game here in their last 15 visits, on Feb. 21, 2003. Since then the Sabres hold a 7-0-0 edge over the Kings at an arena that has had several sponsor names in its title and is now called KeyBank Arena. In fact, the home team has won the last 12 games between these teams, with the exception of a game played in Berlin, Germany, in 2011 that was designated a home game for the Kings and won by the Sabres.

Defenseman Drew Doughty, who was 13 years old the last time the Kings won a game in Buffalo, was surprised to hear about the futility the team has experienced here over the years.

“In 14 years?” he asked, in amazement.

But he said he has never considered Buffalo a tough place to win. “Maybe some buildings, but I don’t see this building as one of those,” he said. “Buildings where you kind of find it hard to win, like Florida or Phoenix or something, there’s just no atmosphere in there. But when the fans are loud and good it’s fun to play in those types of buildings.

“I didn’t know that we hadn’t won in this one for that long, but obviously we’ve got to change that tonight and come up with a win.”

Doughty also said he had “something minor” after unexpectedly doing the splits late in the Kings’ victory over Ottawa on Saturday but benefited from missing a practice and will play against the Sabres. “I feel good and ready to go,” he said.

Center Anze Kopitar also said he had no explanation for the Kings’ struggles in Buffalo. “I guess it’s one of those buildings where the wins are a little tougher to come by,” he said. “We’ll try and change that tonight.”

Kopitar, incidentally, has only two goals this season and has gone 16 games without a goal. He also missed five games because of a shoulder/hand injury, so his last goal really was a while ago, on Oct. 25 at home against Columbus in the Kings’ sixth game of the season. When Coach Darryl Sutter noted recently that Trevor Lewis was the top goal scorer on the top line with five goals since Marian Gaborik has one since his return from a broken foot, it was a compliment for Lewis but also a suggestion to Kopitar and Gaborik that they get going offensively.

“There’s no secret to it. I haven’t gotten one in a long time,” Kopitar said after the Kings’ morning skate Tuesday. “Thanks for bringing that up.”

He was joking, but his lack of production does bother him. “Obviously I want to be scoring goals,” he said. “They haven’t been coming so we’ll try also to change that, too.”

Based on the lines in the morning skate, it appeared that forwards Kyle Clifford and Nick Shore will return to the lineup after sitting last Saturday in favor of Devin Setoguchi and Nic Dowd. “I said before the last game we put them guys in because we wanted to get them a game before the trip,” Sutter said. “We’ve got lots of guys, touch wood, right now. Let ‘em play.”

Goaltender Robin Lehner was announced as the Sabres’ starter by Coach Dan Bylsma. Winger Kyle Okposo, who has been ill, is expected to play.

Bylsma, who played 220 games for the Kings in his NHL career, summed up the Kings succinctly when asked what he expected from them.

“I think the Kings have a good understanding of what they need to do to win hockey games and how they need to play and they stick with that through thick and thin,” he said. “They haven’t scored a lot of goals and I think some people talk about them needing to score more goals but they don’t approach the game that way. They’re going to defend and they’re going to play a hard-checking game. They’re going to play that for 60 minutes and that’s where they’ve had success. It’s what they do well and what they’re going to continue to do.

“They’ve had some injuries and they’ve had [Jonathan Quick] out but they’re not pressing to play a different way. They’re going to play that hard-checking game and limit your opportunities and play the game the right way.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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