Kings Lose Again--and Aren’t at All Defensive : When Montreal Needs a Goal, L.A. Finds Way to Allow It in 6-5 Canadien Win

The Kings, playing laughable defense again, lost their fourth straight game on their current trip Monday night. If this team were a television sitcom, Chevy Chase would play the lead. Or any klutz off the street, for that matter.

The Kings, 3-7 after hitting the road 3-3 in the exciting wake of a win over Edmonton Oct. 19, performed their comic routine this time before a crowd of 16,094 at the Montreal Forum. And a good time was had by all the Canadiens in their 6-5 victory.

If it weren’t so frustrating for him, King Coach Pat Quinn would laugh, too, at the absurdity of it all.

“I’m tired of telling you guys (the press) that we are good guys and we try hard,” Quinn said after the game. “We lost another close one. We threw the puck away on the second (Montreal goal), right up the middle, and the third one we made a bad read.

“I don’t know if it was the goaltenders so much as defenders doing a bad job out in front.”

The Kings’ ultimate mistake was getting caught with their defense out of position with the score tied, 5-5, and just under 8 minutes left to play in the game. Chris Nilan and Guy Carbonneau caught a lone King defenseman, Mark Hardy, in a two-on-one rush, and Carbonneau, waiting for King goalie Roland Melanson to commit himself, neatly slipped the puck to Nilan, who scored what stood up as the winning goal.

The Kings had one big chance after that, when Jimmy Carson sent a hard slapshot at Canadien goalie Brian Hayward, who was caught out of his net. But Hayward scrambled back, and Carson’s shot hit the post.

The first period was vintage Kings. Which is to say they scored first, got a 3-1 lead, then failed to hold it.

Luc Robitaille, the 20-year-old, Montreal-born King rookie, who scored two goals and had one assist against the Canadiens, helped set up the first goal of the game, scored by Sean McKenna, who was playing for the injured Bryan Erickson. After a faceoff to the right of Hayward, Robitaille picked up the puck behind the net and centered it to McKenna in the slot. McKenna’s score came with just 25 seconds gone.

The Canadiens tied it on Gaston Gingras’ slap shot from the blue line with 58 seconds left in a power play.

Then the Kings scored on their first power play, a little more than two minutes later. Marcel Dionne centered the puck, and Jay Wells picked it up on the left side. Robitaille, in the slot, shouted for the puck, and Wells slid a pass to the left wing, who scored from straight on.

“I yelled for him; he gave it to me backhand,” Robitaille said. “I knew I had to shoot it fast. It gave me a lot of confidence.”

Robitaille’s goal fired up the Kings, for a while. Jim Fox scored to give them a 3-1 lead. But recently, that kind of lead has been a cue for the Kings to start making mistakes.

That happened on Montreal’s second and third goals. The Canadiens’ Larry Robinson stole the puck and scored from the top of the slot. Then David Maley got around Morris Lukowich and Larry Playfair to score and bring the first period to an end.

“We got stupid at the end of the first period,” Quinn said.

After the Canadiens scored only 26 seconds into the second period, Fox took a pass from Bernie Nicholls to score and tie it, 4-4. Then after a Montreal goal at 10:30, Robitaille tied the score again at 13:06.

But once again, the Kings’ defense klutzed up, leaving the door open for Carbonneau and Nilan to rush down the ice.

And for the fourth-straight road game, the joke was on the Kings.

King Notes Bryan Erickson, who injured his knee against New Jersey last week, was sent home Monday so that team doctors could examine him. . . . Brian Hayward was starting only his third game in goal for Montreal. . . . It was King goaltender Roland Melanson’s fourth start. He is 0-4-0 . . . The Kings will play the Quebec Nordiques (5-2-2) tonight at Quebec. The Nordiques are leading the Adams Division.