Worst Home Defeat for Kings, 9-0

Memo to King General Manager Rogie Vachon:

Help, Rogie, help. At the rate the Kings are going, they’re going to be eliminated from the playoffs by Christmas. For starters, how about making a trade for a goaltender, some defensemen who can play defense and some forwards who can score?

The Kings certainly could have used better goaltending than they got from Darren Eliot and rookie Glenn Healy in an embarrassing 9-0 loss to the Hartford Whalers Wednesday night before 8,888 booing fans at the Forum.

It was the worst defeat at home in King history, surpassing an 8-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 13, 1979.

About all the Kings have to be thankful for today is that the Whalers left town. The Kings will practice today, even though it’s Thanksgiving.

“I’m at a loss for words,” King Coach Pat Quinn said, scratching his head. “I thought we had shown some signs of improvement on our road trip. . . .” Asked if it was the worst game he’d seen the Kings play in 102 regular-season contests since he became coach, Quinn said: “It sure was, by quite a margin. I thought we had some lows in other games, but we couldn’t function tonight.

“About 12 of the people in there (the King locker room) think they’re going to be traded because of the way they played.”

The game was over after Hartford scored four goals in the first period. Most of the fans left early to beat the traffic. Vachon left his seat in the press box after the first period and didn’t return.

The Kings were horrible on the power play, failing to score in seven chances with a man advantage.

“It was just terrible,” said King center Marcel Dionne, who had only one shot on goal. “I played bad myself.

“In all the years I’ve played, I have not seen anything like it. We were completely disorganized at times. Thank goodness our goalies made some saves or it would have been worse.”

Eliot, starting his fourth consecutive game because of a five-game suspension to No. 1 goalie Bob Janecyk, allowed 3 goals on 10 shots in the first 9 minutes 25 seconds of the game before he was pulled with 10:35 left in the first period.

Healy, a 23-year-old rookie who was signed as a free agent out of Western Michigan last summer, gave up 6 goals on 35 shots in his first appearance in a National Hockey League game.

“I switched goalies early because I wanted to put some life into our team,” Quinn said. “But I threw Healy into a pile of junk.”

Healy: “Hartford was on their game tonight, and this wasn’t one of our better nights. We just didn’t seem to have it right from the start.”

The Kings, 5-15-2 overall, have the worst home record in the NHL this season at 2-9-1 and have been shut out three times.

Hartford, which was opening a four-game trip against Smythe Division teams, is 10-10-0 overall.

The Whalers received a $500 bonus for reaching the .500 mark after the first 20 games of the season.

“It was a big game for us,” said left wing Slyvain Turgeon, who scored the Whalers’ final two goals. “We’ll get a $500 team bonus for being .500 after the first 20. It was our goal.”

Hartford Goalie Mike Liut made 30 saves in registering the shutout.

King left wing Dave (Tiger) Williams hit Liut from behind in the second period, knocking him to the ice. Liut was also down for a couple of minutes but he wasn’t hurt.

“I didn’t see him (Williams) coming,” Liut said. “I was trying to put the puck off the boards. It rung my bell pretty good. I was in a daze before that. We had such a lead that I wasn’t real sharp. It was a sloppy game, and that woke me up.”

Left wing Torrie Robertson also scored two goals as Hartford set a team record for the biggest winning margin on the road. It was also the most goals that the Whalers have ever scored in a road game.

Right wing Kevin Dineen and center Ron Francis each had one goal and two assists.

Left wing Stewart Gavin had an unassisted goal, and left wings Paul Lawless and Jorgen Pettersson scored one each. Center Greg Malone and right wing Bob Crawford each had two assists.

King Notes The Kings play the Chicago Black Hawks Saturday night at the Forum. The Kings played the Black Hawks to a 4-4 overtime tie last Sunday night in Chicago. The Kings end the home stand next Tuesday against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers. Goaltender Bob Janecyk will return to action against the Oilers. Janecyk is serving a five-game suspension for a stick-swinging incident with center Peter Zezel of the Philadelphia Flyers in a Nov. 3 game.