Quinn Angry as Kings Lose to Canadiens, 6-0

After watching his team get shut out, 6-0, Saturday night by the Montreal Canadiens, Pat Quinn, the coach of the Kings, suggested that some of his players might be better suited to another line of work.

He may be correct.

The Kings looked poor, to put it kindly, in losing their 11th game of the season against three wins and one tie. Part of it might be attributed to the fine goaltending of Montreal’s Doug Soetaert, but the brunt of the blame for Saturday’s defeat belongs to the Kings.

Quinn said as much.

“They should spend some hours thinking about their occupation because some of them certainly aren’t hockey players,” he said after his team had been booed off the ice by the Forum crowd of 13,101. “We had a lot of guys with no will to play.

“From the very first shift, when one of our defensemen coughed up the puck with nobody around, you could see that we weren’t ready to play.”

It was the second time this season that the Kings have been shut out, the last time being Oct. 25, when the New York Rangers held them scoreless at Madison Square Garden, 5-0. The last time the Kings were shut out at the Forum was on Jan. 18, 1984, when Buffalo won, 4-0.

The Kings (3-11-1) are winless in their last three games. They have a 1-6-1 record at home. The Kings had played the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers to a 4-4 overtime tie Wednesday, but they looked ragged against the Canadiens, who have been struggling this season under new Coach Jean Perron.

Said King center Bernie Nicholls: “I don’t think everyone’s head was in the game for some reason. We play one good game (against Edmonton) and everyone thinks we’re great.”

Soetaert, who has a 10-0-3 record in his last 13 games against the Kings, looked sharp en route to his fourth career shutout.

“I’m very happy for the guys,” Soetaert said. “I give all the credit to the defensemen and the forwards. They played tight hockey.”

Asked why he plays so well against the Kings, Soetaert said, “I think it’s nice to come out here for a couple of days before the game and forget about hockey. We had been criticized in Montreal and we came out here and regrouped.”

Said Montreal Coach Perron: “Soetaert was really up for the Kings. He knows that team very well.”

The Canadiens outshot the Kings, 36-22.

“We didn’t test him (Soetaert) at all,” Quinn said. “We had no attack. In the second period, we mounted absolutely nothing. We looked about as much like a hockey team as . . . I don’t have an analogy for it.”

Soetaert was seldom tested.

He made a good save on a shot by King right wing Anders Hakansson with 11:13 left in the third period. Soetaert got his glove on Hakansson’s shot from the right point.

With 1:57 left in the game, Soetaert just barely managed to stop a rebound shot by King left wing Phil Sykes with his left leg pad.

Rookie center Stephane Richer scored two third-period goals and had one assist to lead the Canadiens.

“That was my biggest game,” Richer said. “This was for all the rookies.”

Left wing Mats Naslund and rookie left wing Sergio Momesso had one goal and one assist apiece for the Canadiens. Center Bobby Smith and defenseman Tom Kurvers each had two assists.

Left wing Bob Gainey and rookie right wing Kjell Dahlin also scored for the Canadiens.

The Canadiens, who are unbeaten in their last three games, all on the road, have a 6-6-2 record.

“We got five of six points on the road,” Perron said. “The team is rolling. The six goals didn’t impress me. The defense is what impressed me.”

After a scoreless first period, the Canadiens scored two goals in the second period. Momesso got an unassisted goal at 3:50 on a shot that went into the net off the stick of King goalie Bob Janecyk.

Naslund scored off a pass from Smith at 7:36 of the second period.

Montreal put the game away with four goals in the third period. The Canadiens outshot the Kings, 16-8, in the third period.

Gainey scored his fourth goal of the season at 2:02 of the final period on a rebound of a shot by Smith.

Dahlin got an unassisted goal at 3:46, and Richer scored his first goal off a pass from Naslund at 10:13.

Richer got his second goal with 1:09 left in the game, and Janecyk slammed his stick into the post in frustration.

King Notes

The Kings were 0-4 on the power play, and Montreal was 0-3. . . . A correction: Chris Nilan, who was quoted in a story on the Canadiens’ American-born players in Saturday’s editions of The Times’ as saying that he had a French girlfriend, said what he actually meant to say was that “it helps you learn French if you have a French girlfriend.”. . . General Manager Rogie Vachon of the Kings denied published reports that he’s trying to trade for a goalie to replace Bob Janecyk. “I think Bobby is coming around pretty well,” Vachon said.