Exhibition Finale a King-Sized Flop : Hockey: Robitaille’s return only bright spot in L.A.’s 6-2 loss to Islanders. Season begins Wednesday.

The Kings’ final dress rehearsal for the regular season featured few surprises, save for the sight of left wing Mike Donnelly nearly getting in a fight with Islander enforcer Rich Pilon.

Otherwise, relative normalcy prevailed in the New York Islanders’ 6-2 exhibition victory over the Kings on Saturday before a Forum crowd of 13,152. The Islanders, coming off embarrassing back-to-back losses to the Mighty Ducks and San Jose Sharks, were led by the line of left wing David Volek (two goals, three assists), center Ray Ferraro (three assists) and right wing Steve Thomas (three goals, two assists).

But the Kings were encouraged by at least one promising sign. Left wing Luc Robitaille returned to the lineup and promptly scored on the power play in the crease at 13:13 tipping a shot by Tomas Sandstrom. Robitaille had been sidelined because of a strained lower back since the first week of training camp and looked fit even though it was his first exhibition. The other King goal, also on a power play, was scored by left wing Warren Rychel at 15:29 of the first.

The Kings finished the exhibition season 4-2-1, the Islanders 3-6-0.

Goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who is expected to start in the season opener on Wednesday at the Forum against the Vancouver Canucks, faced 38 shots and was tested early by a barrage of Islander scoring opportunities.

Realistically, Hrudey did not have much of a chance on any of the first four goals. The difference between the teams was that the Islanders were simply able to finish their scoring chances, while the Kings were missing by a few feet on their opportunities. They had 40 shots on goal.

The Islanders broke it open with three third-period goals, two of which came when King defenseman Bob Jay was assessed a five-minute major and an automatic game misconduct for checking Islander right wing Steve Junker from behind.

King Notes

Wayne Gretzky was recovering from dental surgery and sat out the final exhibition game. He did play in three other games in addition to the intrasquad game in Phoenix. . . . Among those left unprotected by the Kings for today’s waiver draft are defensemen Brian Chapman, Jeff Chychrun, Dominic Lavoie and forwards Marc Fortier, Rob Murphy, Brandy Semchuk and Dave Thomlinson. The waiver draft is at 11 a.m. and the first round is exclusively for non-playoff and expansion teams. After the first round, all 26 teams have the right to make selections. For instance, the Mighty Ducks select fourth and Florida picks fifth in the first round. No club may lose more than three players and no team can draft from a team in its own division in the first round.