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Off-Ice Problems Put Kings to the Test

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King President Tim Leiweke promised his team would make the playoffs. Instead, the Kings seem intent on making the police blotter.

The news Ziggy Palffy, their top scorer and acting captain, was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of domestic battery against his fiancee at their Manhattan Beach home couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Not that there’s a good time for such news, but because it became public a day after King defenseman Joe Corvo pleaded guilty to a felony count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, his foot, and a misdemeanor count of simple assault and battery in connection with an incident in a Boston bar last November, it could tilt the team’s precarious equilibrium in the wrong direction.

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After winning three of their first four games, the Kings have lost three of their last four games. Their penalty killing ranks last in the NHL and their power play has been scoreless the last two games.

Defenseman Maxim Kuznetsov, who’s physical enough to move people out of the slot, remains in immigration limbo, awaiting permission to enter the U.S. Jason Allison, out since January because of whiplash, didn’t skate Tuesday and appears no closer to returning than he was a month ago. Adam Deadmarsh, out since December because of post-concussion syndrome, practiced more vigorously Tuesday than he had in a while, but Coach Andy Murray felt obligated to note Deadmarsh practiced just as strenuously before an exhibition game a month ago only to feel ill the next day.

Defensemen Aaron Miller (fractured wrist) and Mattias Norstrom (bruised chest) might return Thursday against Vancouver, which should boost the penalty killing. And forward Michael Cammalleri, who sprained his left knee in an exhibition game Sept. 21, “is pretty well ready to go,” Murray said.

But are the Kings? Or will the woes that engulf Corvo and Palffy send the team careening toward yet another non-playoff finish?

Murray said he plans to have both in the lineup Thursday at Staples Center. General Manager Dave Taylor said he expects Palffy to play but is seeking details on Corvo’s legal status, including whether the felony might prevent Corvo from traveling to or from Canada.

Taylor said he watched part of Tuesday’s practice and thought both were focused. “That’s where players are most comfortable,” Taylor said. “They love to play and participate in the game.”

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It’s just that things are even more slippery for them off the ice.

What Corvo and Palffy did is not his business, said Murray, who conveyed a similar message to the team before practice at El Segundo.

“All we said at the start is our position is that this is a personal thing with Ziggy and Joe and there would probably be some media attention today and what we have to say is that it’s a personal thing for them,” said Murray, who spoke with Palffy privately before the session. “We don’t have a lot to say about it, because none of us really know....

“The key thing that Ziggy feels is playing right now is the best thing for him. We’re like everybody else. We don’t know all the details. To be honest with you, probably there are questions even I don’t feel comfortable asking.”

The question that comes immediately to mind is “What were you thinking?”

Palffy politely declined to comment besides saying it is “my personal matter.” He added he won’t be distracted by the legal sword hanging over his head. “I am a professional and I have to do my job, and I’m going to do it,” he said.

Corvo took the same tack. “I’m glad it’s behind me and I’m just going to move ahead,” he said.

The Kings must move ahead, however perilous their path. “The league doesn’t stop and we don’t stop playing games,” Murray said.

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Nor, it seems, does the list of athletes whose names have appeared on police reports, although Murray said he’s not sure athletes’ brushes with the law are out of proportion to those of the general population. “I still firmly believe professional hockey players are a real unique group of athletes,” he said, “but we are humans and we have all the strengths and weaknesses that normal people have.”

That hit home last weekend, when he visited his family in Minnesota. To his surprise, the newspaper in the tiny town of Faribault was dominated by a story on the strife between the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant -- who faces a felony sexual assault charge -- and Shaquille O’Neal. Murray told friends and family he knew nothing about it. He could only wish the same were true on his side of the thick wall that separates the hockey and basketball facilities at the HealthSouth training center.

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