Kings Get Wings Clipped, Go 0-3 on Eastern Swing

Last Tuesday, the Kings soared out of Los Angeles on a three-game trip and zeroed in on the Smythe Division-leading Vancouver Canucks.

Sunday, they crept back into town more concerned about the fast-closing Edmonton Oilers.

The Kings’ season of inconsistency hit another low Sunday night with a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins before a sellout Boston Garden crowd of 14,448.

That was the final blow in a disastrous trip that all but knocked the Kings out of a shot at repeating as division champs.

The trip began with the momentum of an eight-game winning streak, tying the club record.

It ended in despair.

Three games.

Three losses.

One good period out of nine.

The Kings were outscored, 14-3.

They were outshot, 113-79.

They were outhustled throughout.

With such drastic mood swings, this team doesn’t need a coach. It needs a psychiatrist.

“The last three games have not been pretty,” said Coach Tom Webster, not making much effort to conceal the anger boiling within him. “As well as we played in the winning streak, this has been the opposite end of the spectrum. We’re taking the easy way out. We’re being outworked. You’re talking about soft hockey.”

So what can Webster do to turn things around?

“Bring it to their attention,” he said. “Let them know this is not acceptable. This is not the time to make drastic changes. The trading deadline is up.”

After getting shut out by the Hartford Whalers, 4-0, Wednesday, the Kings played well in the first period Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens to take a 2-0 lead. But they lost that game, 5-2.

Then came Sunday. The Bruins have been struggling of late. They beat the Quebec Nordiques in overtime Saturday to end a winless streak that had reached five games (0-4-1). In a constant search for some consistency of their own (Boston is 32-29-10), the Bruins have used 54 players this season. They have brought in a youth movement of late, signing five players from the Winter Olympics.

Sunday it paid off.

Center Joe Juneau, who signed with Boston March 3 after playing for the Canadians in the Olympics, scored his first goal for the Bruins and added three assists.

“They give us an injection of speed and enthusiasm,” Boston coach Rick Bowness said of the new arrivals.

With the center of their checking line, John McIntyre, out with a broken nose, and a key defenseman, Rob Blake, out with a shoulder injury, the Kings figured to be hard-pressed on the small Garden ice surface.

But not that much.

Boston outshot the Kings, 46-20. The Kings had only 13 shots over the final two periods of a game that seemed to be played primarily in the Kings’ zone.

Although he was making just his second start in the net and his first in three weeks for the Kings to give Kelly Hrudey a rest, goalie Steve Weeks kept his new teammates in the game for just over 26 minutes.

Stopping the best the Bruins could muster, Weeks kept the game a scoreless tie.

But the way the Kings were playing, it was just a matter of time.

Steve Leach finally broke through for his 26th goal at 6:18 of the second period.

Before the period was over, Adam Oates had added his 14th goal and Bob Carpenter his 24th.

Following Juneau’s third-period goal, Corey Millen avoided another shutout with his 17th goal before Carpenter closed out the scoring in the final minute with a short-handed goal into an empty net.

The loss drops the Kings to 32-27-13. It also leaves them 11 points back of Vancouver with just eight games to play. It also ominously leaves them just five points ahead of the third-place Oilers in the struggle for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. And Edmonton has played two fewer games.

“I don’t know what to say,” Luc Robitaille told reporters when it was over. “We’re just not trying hard enough. I think we haven’t worked as hard as we were a week ago. We’re not finishing our hits. When we dump the puck in, there is one guy instead of two going for it. We always seem to be late on the puck.”

So how do the Kings get the winning touch back?

“We’d better find it quick,” Webster said. “Seeing the kind of effort we had drives me absolutely nuts as it should everybody in the locker room.”