Detroit Bruised but Still Better

Well, the Kings did win a fight.

And that was about it. In almost every other department, the Detroit Red Wings held a resounding edge Monday night. Too bad it was a hockey game instead of a boxing match. Detroit gave way in the one-sided fight--King defenseman Rob Blake crushed Red Wing rookie forward Tomas Holmstrom with a series of lefts--but prevailed in the larger scheme of things, 3-0.

It was the first time the Kings have been shut out since a 2-0 loss Nov. 27, 1995 at Tampa Bay. The 19,849 at Joe Louis Arena watched goaltender Chris Osgood record his second shutout of the season and 10th of his young career. The Red Wings outshot the Kings, 40-19.

Additionally, newcomer Brendan Shanahan, widely billed as the savior of the Red Wings, ended his scoring drought with two goals, his first since arriving here in a trade with the Hartford Whalers. Center Steve Yzerman added a pretty second-period goal and an assist, and the third member of the line, Greg Johnson, had three assists.

The only damper for the Red Wings (4-4-0) was the continuation of a bizarre streak. Detroit went 0 for 7 on the power play, and is the only NHL team without a power-play goal (0 for 33).

Meanwhile, the Kings (4-5-0) have lost consecutive games after a three-game winning streak and their goal scorers have vanished. Only Ray Ferraro’s power-play goal against the Blackhawks on Sunday prevented the two-game trip from being a double-shutout. But the Kings were mostly in for a night of punishment, including left wing Kevin Stevens, who suffered a charley horse after a hard hit from Vladimir Konstantinov.

“It was our worst game of the year by far,” Ferraro said. “From start to finish. I’m just disgusted in general.”

King Coach Larry Robinson was equally displeased, canceling what had been an off-day in Los Angeles today.

“The effort wasn’t there,” Robinson said. “They’re banging and guys aren’t returning the favor. We’re not skating hard and we don’t want to stick to the game plan. As a result, we end up playing in our zone.

“Guys want to go up the ice, but they don’t want to come back hard. That’s just not acceptable. If they don’t want to do it, we still have lots of guys in Phoenix we can bring up.”

Robinson indicated he may make a player move as early as today. He did say a couple of players performed well, namely defenseman John Slaney and young defenseman Aki Berg.

Forward Petr Klima was not on that list. Klima, along with many others, seemed to go through the motions, making a glaring giveaway to Red Wing center Sergei Fedorov on a King power play in the second period. And he compounded the error by failing to make an effort to come back.

The Red Wings constantly pressured the Kings early and often. Shanahan’s goal came 17 seconds into the game, as he beat goaltender Stephane Fiset on the stick side with a shot from above the left circle. Fiset was partially screened by one of his defensemen.

“I think the fans were more relieved than I was,” Shanahan said. “I think they were thinking, ‘He left all his goals in Hartford.’ ”

Yzerman’s goal will make a highlight film or two. He took a cross-ice pass from defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and out-waited Fiset in the left circle, drew him out and finally flipped the puck past him with a sharp-angled backhanded shot to make it 2-0 at 5:35 of the second period.

Blake’s thrashing of Holmstrom followed later in the period and oddly he received only a double minor. By the time Blake was finished, Holmstrom’s face was bloodied, and probably ended the use of Holmstrom’s nickname in Sweden, “Demolition Man.”

He earned the moniker with the Swedish Team, Lulea, and had back-to-back seasons of 56 and 78 penalty minutes there. King defenseman Mattias Norstrom, a Swede, confirmed the nickname, saying: “He’s about as close as you come to a power forward in Sweden. He was physical, but from what I know, he didn’t fight at all back home.”