What we learned from the Kings’ 2-1 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues

A few more takeaways after the Kings suffered a rare home loss to the Blues, in fact, their first regular-season defeat to St. Louis at Staples Center since 2011.

Darryl Sutter’s range of emotions on display

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter unleashed a rare tirade from the bench at the officials about a controversial call – a five-minute charging major and automatic game misconduct on Kings defenseman Brayden McNabb.

Boys and girls, cover your ears.

You know when Sutter is truly upset when he shifts from anger to withering sarcasm, which he did after the game in his brief post-game session with reporters.

Asked about the call on McNabb -- and if he thought it was the right call, Sutter said: “Yeah, that’s why I was hollering at ‘em, telling them it was a great call.”

He expanded on his thoughts before terminating discussion of the call.

“The guy [Magnus Paajarvi] is falling down and Brayden made contact, so his [Paajarvi’s] head is right down around his [McNabb’s] knees, so what’s your interpretation of it?” Sutter said. “Probably the same as mine. So don’t talk about it anymore ... if they can’t make better calls than that...”

The Call, 2.0

Naturally, there was a ton of debate about the major and misconduct to McNabb, who backed into Paajarvi as the player was falling, due to a slash from Kings’ forward Milan Lucic.

Kelly Chase of the Blues radio team tweeted that he thought Paajarvi was in a “vulnerable” position. Paajarvi was bleeding and went to the dressing room for treatment.

Sutter’s stance was obvious. Kings Assistant General Manager Rob Blake was adamant too, saying, via email: “…it was absolutely the wrong call. Not even a minor penalty.”

The next Kings-Blues game? Feb. 18 at St. Louis.

A long streak was bound to end … some day

The Blues had a rough two-day go in Southern California.

They lost three regulars during Friday’s loss, in a shootout, to the Ducks. Paajarvi was injured in the third period of the Kings game and they also lost defenseman Carl Gunnarsson to an upper-body injury, limited to a little more than six minutes of action.

If you combine the regular season and playoffs, the Blues had not won at Staples Center in the last 11 games before Saturday.

“We just have to bear down on our opportunities,” Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin said. “We had good looks and good shots, some point-blank shots and some second and third ones.

“If we capitalized on those, there would have been a different outcome to the game. We’ve just got to get a little hungry on those opportunities and take advantage of them.”

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter: @reallisa