Kings overpowered quickly

Each day seemingly brings a new lesson for the youthful Kings and another one arrived in their on-ice classroom Saturday night with a rare visit from the New Jersey Devils.

Goalie Martin Brodeur may be on the shelf, Brent Sutter may be a rookie coach, and the signing earlier in the day of Brendan Shanahan, only two days before his 40th birthday, may speak to a sense of desperation after two losses.

But for a night, the Devils looked like their old selves, old-schooling the Kings in a 5-1 victory at Staples Center that was aided by three power-play goals.

Even if it feels as if this may be a team in transition, it was the type of performance that illustrated why the Devils have won three Stanley Cups in the last 13 seasons and been considered contenders almost every other year.

“That’s their M.O.,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said. “They’ve been doing that for 15 years. You don’t win Stanley Cups and go deep into the playoffs year after year by doing things once in a while. You do it right all the time.”

What most stood out to Murray was that the Kings took too many unnecessary penalties, eight in all.

New Jersey took the role of aggressor from the first drop of the puck and every time the Kings’ attention span lapsed, the Devils took advantage. Their first two goals came via the power play and were identical in form: Travis Zajac immediately won a faceoff from the Kings’ Michal Handzus and delivered the puck to back to the point for a loaded-up slap shot.

The first came from Jamie Langenbrunner, whose shot just inside the post was ever-so-slightly deflected by Zajac at 16:04 of the first period. When Zajac won another faceoff, just over a minute into the second period, Patrik Elias ripped his shot over the shoulder of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.

The two power plays lasted a total of eight seconds.

“It’s definitely deflating,” Kings center Brian Boyle said. “You want to start out, especially in the beginning, you want to win that draw, kill that penalty and get going again.”

Defenseman Matt Greene, who was off for holding when Zajac scored, committed another costly mistake shortly after. Trying to carry the puck out of his own end, Greene had it poked away by Elias. It landed right on the stick of Zach Parise, who showed why he was named to the All-Star team, sending a backhander past Quick.

Greene completed his hat trick of ignominy late in the third period, when he dropped his gloves and was pummeled by Mike Rupp.

The Kings had gotten a spark early in the third period by Derek Armstrong, who had sat out the last 13 games -- the first seven because of a concussion, the rest as a scratch. He fought off two Devils to deflect Alexander Frolov’s soft shot past goaltender Kevin Weekes 1:17 into the third period. But the momentum didn’t last long.

Kings killer Brian Rolston saw to that with a power-play goal with 13:31 to play, his 14th in 30 games against the Kings and a memento for his 1,000th game in the NHL. Langenbrunner capped the scoring by finishing off a 2-on-1 break.

It was the type of crisp offensive burst that the Kings continue to search for. While they’ve accomplished a season-long objective of improving their defense -- from 28th last year to eighth -- their offense is 26th. They’ve failed to score three goals in eight of their last 11 games.

On this night, they could at least look across the ice to see how it’s done.

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billywitz@yahoo.com