Kings’ 7-1 Victory Helps, but It’s Only the Sharks

King owner Bruce McNall took a step back last summer, placing himself in voluntary exile as he gave up the title of team president in attempt to alter his club’s fate this season.

Still, the extra distance hasn’t helped ease the pain of losing for McNall. Night after night, he sits in his private box at the Forum with his frustration level increasing after each loss. And there have been plenty of losses at the Forum.

Until the Kings’ 7-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night before a sellout crowd of 16,005, they hadn’t won at home in their last eight games, going 0-7-1, one short of the club record. The previous victory at the Forum was more than a month ago, against St. Louis on Dec. 12.

But this game could have been costly for the Kings (24-20-5). They lost center Jari Kurri and defenseman Darryl Sydor to injuries during the first period. Kurri suffered a severely bruised right forearm when he was slashed by Shark defenseman Tom Pederson with 2:16 left in the first period and was taken to Centinela Hospital Medical Center for X-rays. So was Sydor, who left the game because of a broken nose when he was checked into the boards by Jeff Odgers at 14:39 of the first. The X-rays for both players were negative, but Sydor has a cervical strain and a lower back strain.

Leading the Kings were defensemen Paul Coffey, who had five assists, and Rob Blake, who had two goals and two assists.

Nonetheless, a victory over the Sharks isn’t exactly a valid measuring stick of anything. San Jose even lost to Ottawa earlier this season. The Sharks are hockey’s version of the Dallas Mavericks.

It won’t be entirely clear right away what the single victory means for the Kings. Earlier, McNall spoke about his feelings during this prolonged slump, during which his team had won only four of its previous 20 games.

“Pretty frustrating,” he said. “I’m pretty frustrated. But I’m not by any means panicked by it. The facts are that we’ve shown we can be a pretty good team. I’m pretty confident we’ll get out of it.”

Previously, McNall had reacted to these sort of quandaries by acting emotionally, criticizing his players in public and threatening to trade anyone, other than Wayne Gretzky, to any team. Now, of course, he has a coach, Barry Melrose, who is doing some of those things.

For now, McNall is trying his best to be patient. Since he more or less handed the wheel to President Roy Mlakar and General Manager Nick Beverley, he is letting them do the driving.

“I’ve tried to leave it in the hands of Roy and Nick,” he said. “I’m trying to go through this time period without making suggestions. But if it gets to the absurd stage, I’ll put my two cents in.”

McNall indicated that it’s getting precariously close to that juncture. “My patience is wearing very thin,” he said.

Unlike the New York Rangers or the Detroit Red Wings, the Kings don’t seem to have any players they could summon from their minor league team in Phoenix and expect a significant impact. Even Melrose addressed that lack of depth after Saturday’s loss to the Rangers.

“We certainly don’t have the depth of some teams,” McNall said of the Roadrunners, who are 18-25-2. “We’ve got a lot of players we’ve thought about bringing up to give us that jump start. There’s (Robert) Lang as well as another big defenseman. There’s Keith Redmond . . . some kids who are making a good impact. So I’m not too distressed about it (the depth).”

McNall said he is willing to do anything to try to fix the problems. He said there are several avenues: making a trade, calling up minor leaguers or increasing the use of sports psychology.

“What does a change mean?” he asked. “Is it giving them added motivational psychology? A lot of the guys say (the slump) is a mental thing. There are a lot of things you can do. We have to ask: ‘Are we doing everything we can as an organization?’

” . . . If they want me to be more involved, I’ll do it. I don’t want to meddle. I’m happy either way. I just want to win. If Barry, Roy or Nick say, ‘We want you around, we miss your touch,’ I’m right there. Whatever they feel is the best thing for us.

“I just wish I could do for the team some of the positive things I’ve done for the league,” McNall, chairman of the NHL’s Board of Governors, said with a sigh.