Penalty kill gets special attention

For the struggling Kings, penalty killing was the focus of Saturday’s practice in El Segundo. It had to be.

Especially after Friday’s series of mishaps in an 8-6 loss to the Bruins. Boston had three power-play goals, which should essentially have been four because one penalty had just expired when the Bruins scored their first goal. Kings defenseman Rob Blake noted that the Bruins could have had even more.

“Special teams seem to be what the NHL is all about now,” the Kings’ Scott Thornton said. “Your special teams win and lose you hockey games. That’s our main concern.”

There are many other concerns, of course. The club equaled its worst start in 20 years and has lost four consecutive games, giving up 18 goals in the last three. Still, Thornton sees the positives in a hectic schedule.

“I’d prefer to play,” Thornton said. “That’s the beauty of the NHL, you’re so busy, you keep going. You don’t want to dwell on it too long. It’s a long season. I’m sure Anaheim wasn’t too happy with the way the first week of their season went either. But I’m sure they weren’t pushing any panic buttons in their locker room.”

Kings Coach Marc Crawford addressed the penalty-killing shortcomings.

“Sometimes, you’re going to kill [a penalty] and you’re not going to kill very well and get away with it,” he said. “Then there’s nights like last night where it seems like you can’t get out of your own way. We talked a lot today, and we worked on it, about trusting how we’re playing. . . .

“What happened to us in the past is we’ve seen the trust waver. And when the trust wavers, you go out of your way, maybe a half-step. Or you don’t have the stick in the right position. We’ve got to stay the course. That was a big part of the theme for our team, right here, right now. . . . We’ve all got to battle our way through it.”

Defenseman Tom Preissing, who sat out two games because of flu-like symptoms, practiced for the first time since Wednesday morning in Dallas. The illness hit him when he woke up in the afternoon from his pregame nap.

“I guess I felt disoriented,” he said, adding that he felt “off-center.” Preissing visited an ear, nose and throat specialist in Los Angeles on Thursday and said he checked out OK.

“We’ll see how I feel tomorrow when I wake up, and if I feel good, hopefully I’ll be able to go,” Preissing said.

Public service department: There’s another option for fans for parking, as a new structure (part of L.A. Live) has opened. The entrance is off 11th Street between Georgia and Cherry.

History lesson: This is the 40th anniversary of the team’s first game, which was played on Oct. 14, 1967, at the Long Beach Arena. The Kings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2.

It could have been worse: The last time the Kings gave up eight goals at home was Dec. 18, 1999, against Chicago. They gave up 10 goals at Buffalo on Jan. 14, 2006, in a 10-1 victory by the Sabres.

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TODAY

vs. Detroit, 5 p.m., FSN West

Radio -- 1150.

Site -- Staples Center.

Records -- Kings 1-4, Red Wings 3-1-1.

Record vs. Red Wings (2006-07) -- 1-2-1.

Update -- The headline: “Defensive errors have proven costly.” No, it wasn’t about the Kings. It was on a recent story about the Red Wings. Then again, the Kings have given up 10 more goals than the Red Wings’ 13 in five games. Chris Osgood is likely to start in goal for Detroit, which is starting a four-game West Coast swing.