Kings need work on the power play after a poor showing against the Devils

The Kings’ to-do list grew considerably longer after Saturday night’s overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils.

What would be a good starting point?

How to fix the power play, a woeful 0 for 5 against the Devils?

Or, perhaps how to avoid another sluggish first period such as the opening 20 minutes against New Jersey? The suddenly subpar power play also fit into that equation since the Kings had three power-play opportunities in the first period.

Dustin Brown thought that’s where the game slipped away even though he hit a crossbar late in regulation. Devils defenseman John Moore won it with 16 seconds remaining in overtime, his third overtime goal this season.

“I just don’t think we were ready to start. We just had a continuation of the third period against Washington,” said Brown, referring to Wednesday’s game in which the Kings gave up three goals in the third period. “That kind of seeped into our game tonight.

“We were just chasing, we had to grind out a goal in the second. We had our chances — but we have to start on time.”

Plus there was the combination of the Devils’ shot-blocking ability and the Kings’ lack of consistent aggression with the man advantage.

“We spent too much time on the penalty kill tonight and I credit [goaltender] Keith [Kinkaid], and the penalty killers did a great job,” said Devils Coach John Hynes. “Shot blocking was huge, particularly early in the game when we were short-handed quite a bit. It is nice to see that type of commitment, and we needed that to be able to get a win tonight.”

Said center Anze Kopitar, who had the Kings’ lone goal: “It’s a lot of things we weren’t doing. “Obviously no discredit to them. We know we can play a lot better and we’re going to have to play a lot better. I don’t think we were aggressive enough.

”... We definitely didn’t get enough shots on it and I don’t know what the totals were. But it seemed like we didn’t get enough pucks to the net.”

Notable

The Kings signed youngster, forward Michael Amadio, to a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced Sunday.

Amadio, a third-round draft choice (90th overall) in 2014, has been playing with North Bay of the Ontario Hockey League in Canada, leading his team with 48 goals and 94 points in 65 games this season.

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Update: Goalie Corey Crawford is scheduled to start for the Blackhawks and defenseman Michal Rozsival, who did not practice Sunday, likely will be a game-day decision. This will be the first meeting between the Kings and Chicago since they swapped defensemen on Feb. 26 with the Kings sending Christian Ehrhoff to the Blackhawks for Rob Scuderi. Ehrhoff has played in four games with Chicago since the trade, recording one assist. He logged nearly 14 minutes of ice time in Friday’s loss to Dallas.

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter: @reallisa