Kings’ Hopes Flicker : Hockey: Irbe continues mastery in San Jose’s 4-0 rout that puts Kings two points out of playoff spot with three games left.

Defenseman and philosopher Marty McSorley summed up the Kings’ situation after they lost, 4-0, to the San Jose Sharks, a damaging result to any remaining playoff aspirations with three games left in the season.

“We is what we is,” McSorley said, standing in a glum dressing room. “We’re either a playoff team or we’re not. If we can’t win these games leading into the playoffs, what do you expect once we get in there?”

Friday night, the Kings moved further away from making it instead of inching closer. Shark goaltender Arturs Irbe recorded his third shutout of the season against the Kings as the Sharks took over the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 39 points, a one-point lead over the ninth-place Oilers. The Kings (14-22-9) are two points behind at 37, tied for 10th with Winnipeg.

It has come to this: If the Kings lose to the Mighty Ducks and the Sharks beat St. Louis on Sunday, the Kings will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Of the three games remaining, one is at home and two are on the road. And Friday was the Kings’ seventh consecutive road loss and they have one just victory in their last 10 games overall, going 1-7-2.

“We need help now,” said the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky, who hasn’t scored in 10 games. “Before this game we controlled our destiny. It’s a horrible feeling.”

Said King goaltender Kelly Hrudey: “There were good signs, but we don’t need good signs, we need results. And this wasn’t one we needed.”

Perhaps there were two painfully obvious signs early on that the Kings’ playoff chances would dwindle by the end of the night. One was the loud chants--Irbe! Irbe!--from the sellout crowd of 17,190 at San Jose Arena, signaling that Irbe, the tiny acrobatic goaltender, was showing his usual shutout form against the Kings.

Second was the score after the first period. Although the Sharks led, 1-0, the Kings have not won a single game this season in which they trailed after the first period, going 0-16-1.

Irbe made it 0-17-1. He was asked whether the Kings were psyched out against him. “I was wondering several times they had very good positions for shots and they looking for that extra pass,” Irbe said. “There was no pass there and they were still looking for it. Finally when they realized there was no pass, the opportunity was gone.”

If the Kings fail to reach the playoffs, there is a long list of reasons. But two were on exhibit Friday night--an inability to solve Irbe and a failure to generate any sort of sustained offensive attack.

Irbe, who faced 29 shots, recorded his fourth career shutout of the season against the Kings. The Kings, scoring only two goals in their last four road games, have been shut out four times this season. And Irbe has a shutout streak of 120 minutes 18 seconds against the Kings.

Leading the Sharks was center Craig Janney with one goal and one assist and forward Kevin Miller with two points, an empty-netter with 1:35 remaining and a first-period assist on Janney’s goal. Janney, who recorded his sixth of the season, scored the Sharks’ first goal on a breakaway at 9:34, taking advantage of a Wayne Gretzky turnover in the neutral zone.

San Jose added two more goals in the second period, by Ray Whitney at 12:23 and Ulf Dahlen at 18:33. Both goals came on miscues by King defenseman Darryl Sydor, who suffered through a particularly difficult night. In fact, the defensive pairing of Sydor and Michel Petit was on for the first three Shark goals and Sydor was on for every goal.

One of the better scoring chances for the Kings came in the third period when defenseman Rob Blake hit the post with about seven minutes left. Blake played despite suffering a slightly pulled groin Wednesday against Detroit.

“We’ve got to win all three games,” Blake said. “And hope other teams do us some favors. We’ve got to watch the scoreboard now. If we don’t win these games, it doesn’t matter what the other teams do.”