New Low Reached by Kings : Hockey: They have won only once in nine games after losing to expansion Panthers, 6-5.

So much for the alleged forgiving part of the Kings’ schedule, a favorable-looking home stand dotted with the NHL’s newest teams.

This innocent-appearing section of the season has reared up and slapped the Kings around and it has gone from disappointing to mediocre to downright embarrassing. It reached that new low Wednesday night as the expansion Florida Panthers scored three power-play goals to beat the Kings, 6-5.

Six goals is a season-high for the Panthers. And the power-play, which had been ranked 24th in the league, sprung to life against the Kings. The Panthers had scored only 13 goals in their last seven games before Wednesday. But that’s nothing new.

Teams are finding remarkable healing powers while playing the Kings, who have lost consecutive games to Florida and Tampa Bay. They have won once in their last nine games, a one-goal victory over the expansion Mighty Ducks, and recorded two victories in their last 12 games.

King fans finally seem to be registering disapproval. The crowd of 14,752 at the Forum was the second consecutive non-sellout and it is the fifth non-sellout in 14 home dates.

Wednesday’s game had many similarities to the Kings’ 5-4 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday when their furious third-period rally fell short. After goaltender Robb Stauber replaced Kelly Hrudey for the final 20 minutes, the Kings threw everything at the Panthers as Alexei Zhitnik, Luc Robitaille and Tomas Sandstrom scored, but they could not catch the Panthers.

And one wonders how the Kings would be faring if Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri weren’t playing well. Kurri had one goal and two assists and Gretzky had two assists. “We’re killing ourselves in our own end,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “We’re making a lot of young mistakes. We have total control and we’re not getting (the puck) out. That happened on three of the goals. You can’t do that in the NHL.”

What do you do?

“Maybe we’ll bring Mark Hardy back and put Tim Watters back in the lineup,” said Melrose, who plans on speaking to General Manager Nick Beverley about that plan. “Maybe we need to go with a veteran defense. The defense that finished last season.”

Said Florida Coach Roger Neilson: “I didn’t think we could win a wild game like this. Their two quick power-play goals (in the second) opened it up after that. There’s nothing you can do. Just pray that you win.”

Again the defense struggled in the second period, as it did Saturday night.

The Panthers turned a 2-2 game into a 5-2 lead with three goals in the final 7:24 of the second.

On each of those three goals, the Kings simply could not recover from their first mistake.

Andrei Lomakin put the Panthers ahead with a power-play goal at 12:36 when he sneaked in behind the defense pair of Rob Blake and Zhitnik. Defenseman Greg Hawgood hit Lomakin at the Kings’ blue line and Lomakin beat Hrudey on the breakaway.

A King turnover behind their net led to the next Florida goal at 14:43, again by Lomakin as he skated into the slot all alone and unchecked. Lomakin, taking the pass from Jesse Belanger, beat Hrudey down low with a backhander from the edge of the right circle.

Florida went ahead, 5-2, with 30.4 seconds remaining in the second with Belanger setting up Dave Lowry with a pass from behind the net. Lowry alone had enough time to stop the puck with his skate, paused and shot the puck and beat Hrudey on the stick side.

King Notes

Coach Barry Melrose, on his $5,000 fine from the NHL for criticizing the replacement officials: “My kids won’t be able to have Christmas now. Just lumps of coal.” . . . Right wing Tony Granato, as expected, sat out his first game of the season because of a strained lower back. Granato, who has scored one goal in the last 20 games, sat out three games last season because of a similar injury. “I don’t know exactly what happened,” Granato said. “It’s a good time (to rest) with three days off between games.” Additionally, Granato has had to deal with recent trade rumors, mostly coming from call-in radio shows. “Obviously by my not performing, I put myself in this position. Sure, you hear it. It happens when you’re not playing as well as you’re capable of. I can’t blame anybody but myself. Every year I’ve been here, I’ve been hearing (rumors).”