The Los Angeles Kings, presently in the Western Conference Top 8, are staying in contention despite the fact that the team is last in the league in offense.

Under Darryl Sutter, who replaced Terry Murray as head coach 16 games ago, the Kings have been competitive every night, but have to lean heavily upon All Star goaltender Jonathan Quick to work wonders in the net.

The pressure of having to win every night with a meager offense gives Sutter no margin for error and makes valuable backup netminder Jonathan Bernier an afterthought; he's only started two of the 16 matches under Sutter's stewardship.

Kings GM Dean Lombardi -- reluctantly pushed into a 'win now' mentality by virtue of a $63 million payroll that contains underachiever Dustin Penner and injured veteran Simon Gagne, combined with pressure from ownership to have a deep playoff run -- may be forced to break up the young goaltending tandem sooner than he wanted.

With the dearth of production on left wing, Kings captain Dustin Brown has moved to the left flank in support of Anze Kopitar, while Justin Williams has resurfaced as the line's right wing. While the top line has consistently put points on the board over the last couple of weeks, the shift has left Mike Richards with no threats on either side with the aforementioned Penner and Jarret Stoll, unproductive in his time at right wing.

Talks recently revived around a long discussed deal that would see Bernier head to Tampa Bay for Ryan Malone, the talented but oft injured Lightning winger.

Malone has been a long time favorite of Lombardi; he plays hard nightly, is fearless going to the net and is well respected in the locker room. He would be an upgrade on the left side, but would have to waive a no-movement clause and some doubt he'd agree to an address change with three years remaining on his deal.

While a move west may be a non-starter for the guy known as Bugsy, Lightning GM Steve Yzerman is desperate to obtain a young goalie that has the potential to play in Southwest Florida for the better part of a decade; so there's motivation for the Red Wing legend to do a great sales job on the virtues of the Pacific shores.

There's further speculation that Lombardi would consider the riskier move of packaging Bernier with Brown for a top three forward like New Jersey Devils star Zach Parise.

The newest conjecture commenced when a New York Post report cited that the NHL was ready to fund the Devils for the balance of the season earlier this week. New Jersey's rocky ownership situation doesn't make it an optimal place for a Parise return (his one year, $6 million deal expires July 1) and his comments fueled the fire that he may be for sale despite the Devils being clearly in the playoff hunt.

"You hear about teams that, no matter what, they're not going to spend to the cap," Parise told The Post. "That's just the way they are. It's hard to be competitive if you're not going to, if you can't spend as much as these other teams. So if there's a change, you hope that part won't change, because we've always been a salary cap team."

If Parise does come on the market, the Kings wouldn't be alone as Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland would likely pick up the phone.

TFP Senior Writer and Los Angeles Correspondent Dennis Bernstein contributed to this report.

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