LOS ANGELES — The Kings’ offense still needs a jump-start.
Mason Marchment scored two power-play goals, Kirill Marchenko had one, and the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the goal-starved Kings, 3-1, on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored and Anton Forsberg made 27 saves for the Kings, who were held under three goals for the sixth straight game.
Jet Greaves made 23 saves and Damon Severson had two assists as Columbus snapped a four-game road losing streak.
Columbus was without defenseman Zach Werenski, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury he sustained while blocking a shot against the Ducks on Saturday. Werenski leads the Blue Jackets in goals, assists and points, and his 14 goals is tied with Washington’s Jakob Chychrun for most in the NHL by a defenseman.
However, newcomer Marchment made up for it, scoring twice in the first period and giving him three goals in two games since being acquired from Seattle on Friday. He opened the scoring 4:07 into the game with a wrist shot off Forsberg’s blocker, before making it 2-0 with 23.5 remaining when Boone Jenner’s shot took a double deflection and went in off Marchment’s shoulder.
Kuzmenko got the Kings on the scoreboard with 1:19 left in the second, but Marchenko added a third power-play goal for the Blue Jackets with 5:46 remaining in the third. The three goals with the man-advantage was a season high, and it was the third time the Blue Jackets had multiple power-play goals.
The Kings were playing for the first time since trading third-line center Phillip Danault to Montreal on Friday, but newly-promoted bottom six centers Alex Turcotte and Samuel Helenius struggled to make a consistent impact with frequent penalties creating a choppy game flow.
More to come on this story.
KINGS SIGN LOMBARDI
The Kings have signed prospect center Jimmy Lombardi to a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced on Monday.
Lombardi, 18, was a fourth-round selection of the Kings (No. 125 overall) in June’s NHL entry draft, which took place a stone’s throw from Crypto.Com Arena.
The 6-foot, 190-pound pivot is in his third season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Flint Firebirds, wearing a letter and producing well above a point-per-game pace. He is committed to the University of Michigan for next season, the second campaign in which Canadian major junior players will have the option to continue their career in the NCAA.
Lombardi fits the mold of many mid-round picks, particularly for the Kings of late, in that he could have middle-six upside but should at least find a home in the bottom six eventually. His compete level, maturity and tenacity appear in virtually every scouting report on the Toronto native, who played for the vaunted Don Mills Flyers in his youth.
Yet Lombardi could also have offensive upside, with supple hands that allow him to make plays at high speeds and give few tips to opposing defenders about what’s coming next. His scoring profile had trended toward playmaking, but he has a much more balanced profile this season. He’s on pace to catapult from 13 to 42 goals year-over-year, while also increasing his assist production.
He sits fourth on the OHL leaderboard in goals and is one of just three skaters to have 20 or more goals and 20 or more assists this season. The others are Kieron Walton, a Winnipeg Jets prospect and Sudbury Wolf, and OHL scoring leader Nathan Aspinall. Aspinall skates on Lombardi’s wing, and is a 2024 New York Rangers fifth-round selection.
Lombardi is the second player from this most recent class to be signed by the Kings after they inked second-rounder Vojtěch Čihař to an entry-level deal earlier this month.
UP NEXT
The Kings host Seattle on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Correspondent Andrew Knoll contributed to this story.
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