Corey Perry has been having an excellent start to this season, one of the best in his 21-year career. The 40-year-old continues to show that age is nothing but a number, with another two-point performance in Los Angeles’ 3-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Despite his age, this is the best start he’s had in the opening 10 games of a season since he was with the Anaheim Ducks.
With one goal and an assist against the Penguins, Perry now has seven goals and 11 points in the first 10 games of the campaign. He’s fourth on the Kings in scoring, all while playing six fewer games than those ahead of him.
"I don’t think anybody expected him to come in and play 14, 15 minutes a night and any of this stuff," Kings head coach Jim Hiller told reporters after their victory in Pittsburgh.
"I don’t know how he does it, I just don’t. He’s got tremendous hockey sense and soft hands but he just makes the game somehow look pretty easy. He’s done it his whole career but doing it now, the way he’s doing it, it’s really nice."
Furthermore, those 11 points in his first 10 games are the most by a 40-year-old with any franchise, surpassing Joe Thornton's 10 points when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021.
Kevin Fiala Hits 500 Career Points as Kings Survive Penguins 3–2 ThrillerThe Los Angeles Kings opened their six-game road trip in Pittsburgh with a hard-fought, gritty 3-2 win over the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Penguins</a> on early Sunday afternoon. The win also gives the Kings their first victory over an Eastern Conference team this season, who are now <a href="https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/la-kings-record-against-eastern-conference-teams-this-season">1-2-2</a>.
The Kings’ right winger is making last season’s numbers look silly. As a member of the Edmonton Oilers, Perry only had one goal and one assist in his first 10 games of the season.
Now, he is averaging over a point per game and is on pace to score north of 50 goals and around 83 points.
That’s an unlikely pace to keep up on for Perry, especially considering the only time he ever reached 50 goals and more than 83 points was in 2010-11. In that season, he won the Rocket Richard and Hart Trophy with 50 goals and 93 points.
Speaking of a Perry from the past, this has been the best opening 10 games to a season since the 2014-15 campaign with the Ducks, 11 years ago. In that season, he recorded nine goals and 12 points in the first 10 games. He wasn’t far from matching those totals this year.
Nonetheless, the fact is that Perry has emerged as a key contributor for the Kings, a game-changer even, since he came back from his pre-season injury. He's been turning out to be one of the better acquisitions Kings GM Ken Holland made in the summer.
While he's pencilled in on the fourth line, Perry has been efficient in the 14:49 of ice time that he's averaged so far this year. With that, he worked his way up to the top power-play unit, and now the Kings have power-play goals in every game since that change.
Los Angeles Kings Make Much-Needed Change To Top Power-Play UnitCorey Perry, the Los Angeles Kings' joint-leading goal scorer, will be joining the team's top power-play unit, a much-needed alteration. Is this the change the Kings need to end their power-play scoring drought?He missed the opening six contests of the year due to a knee injury that he suffered in a practice session in September. After undergoing surgery and missing just under six weeks, he jumped into the Kings’ lineup in mid-season form.
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