Hockey in Southern California is not going so well this season. As of Thursday, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks have the two worst offenses in the league, and by a pretty significant margin. In terms of goals-per-game, the Kings (2.00) and Ducks (2.10) are the only two teams averaging under 2.50 per game.

Both teams' scoring woes have been particularly dire lately. If you need proof, consider this: Over the past week (since November 8), the Kings and Ducks have played a total of six games ... and they've scored a combined four goals. 

That works out to be 365:00 minutes of combined ice time (the Ducks went to overtime and a shootout against the Predators) with just four total goals to show for it. That's quite bad, my friends. 

To break it down a little further, the Kings and Ducks have each played three games over the past seven days. Both teams scored just once (not counting the shootout markers in Anaheim's win over Nashville) in two of those three games, while both were shutout in the other game. So, neither team has scored more than one goal in a game in over a week. 

Credit to Anaheim for somehow finding a way to pick up a win against the league's best team during this incredible stretch of SoCal ineptitude. But, as you'd probably expect, the other five games resulted in losses.

And while scoring is clearly a major issue for both of these teams, they also have some other things going on as well. The Kings currently sit dead last in the NHL -- and in our weekly Power Rankings -- largely because they're slow and old and bad. But they've also had goal-tending issues all year. Jonathan Quick has played just four games (0-3-1 with a .845 save percentage) and he's currently on IR due to a torn meniscus. LA's backup, Jack Campbell, who was playing pretty well (.923 save percentage in 13 games) also tore his meniscus and headed to IR this week. 

That means it's 36-year-old Peter Budaj and 24-year-old Cal Petersen in net for the Kings for the immediate future. Are we having fun yet?

The good news for Kings fans is that the team has seemingly realized they stink and appear to be embracing a much-needed rebuild. They already fired head coach John Stevens and have proven to be active on the trade market, swapping Tanner Pearson for Carl Hagelin this week. Not a deal that's going to fix a whole lot on its own, but it's a start. 

Meanwhile, the Ducks have also been battling health issues all year. A significant number of their forwards have battled injuries of varying extent (including Ryan Kesler, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ondrej Kase and Patrick Eaves) and they lost one of their top defensemen, Cam Fowler, to a fractured face this week. The hits just keep on coming. 

Unlike the Kings, the Ducks have managed to pick up a decent amount of wins (they're 8-9-3 through 20 games) and hang around the middle of the pack in the Western Conference. A lot of that has to do with the play of John Gibson, who has been solid in net for Anaheim, posting a .927 save percentage through 16 games for the club. 

However, the Ducks rank last in shots-per-game and second-to-last in shots against per game, so the Ducks are in prime position to continue falling down the standings if they don't make some serious changes. 

So, yeah, overall, an incredibly bad time to be a hockey fan in Southern California. I wouldn't be holding your breath for another Battle of California in this year's playoffs.