Kings Return Home, Look More Offense

Two playoff road games. Two losses for the Kings. Not a good start to their first postseason appearance in five years.

If they’re going to survive against the St. Louis Blues, the Kings will have to start scoring on the power play and clear the puck out of their zone, an inability that has plagued them all season.

The Kings are 0 for 16 on power-play chances in the series, which resumes tonight at the Forum.

“It’s frustrating if you’re not getting chances,” King Coach Larry Robinson said Sunday. “We’re getting shots at bad angles. Whether that’s a tribute to their penalty-killing or our decisions on where we’re moving the puck, it’s probably a little bit of both.”

The Kings showed Saturday night they weren’t going to be pushed around like they were in an 8-3 loss in the series opener. They gave the Blues all they could handle before St. Louis scored in the third period for a 2-1 win and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

“We knew we weren’t going to score eight goals every game against L.A.,” Blues defenseman Steve Duchesne said. “It’s going to be real tight, I’m sure, until the end.”

Jim Campbell’s game-winning power-play goal came after the Kings blew several chances to get the puck over their blue line.

“If there’s one thing St. Louis does well is they go to the net, but you always see there’s two or three guys that stop right in front where the rebounds are,” Robinson said. “When we go to the net, we don’t stop there. We circle away and either go behind the net or circle away from the net. The rebounds are laying there and we just give it back to St. Louis.”

Penalties played a major part in the first two games. The Blues were 1-of-7 on their power play in Game 2. The Kings were anemic with a man advantage during the regular season, scoring just once on 16 chances in three losses and a tie.

“In Game 3, we’re going to have to turn the other cheek because their power play is starting to move it around really well and they can score at any time,” St. Louis’ Craig Conroy said. “We’ve got to stay out of the box.”

Robinson said he would decide after Monday morning’s practice whether to start 22-year-old Jamie Storr in goal. He was unflappable making 25 saves in Game 2 going against veteran Grant Fuhr.

“There’s a good chance we will (start Storr),” Robinson said.

The Kings are 0-7-1 in their last eight games against the Blues, tabbed by some to win the Stanley Cup. Monday night’s game was not a sellout as of Sunday, but Los Angeles is counting on fans hungry for their first playoff game since 1993 to come out.

“Usually in the playoffs you come in and you want to be .500 on the road,” Kings defenseman Rob Blake said. “You want to split going into someone else’s building. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that. But the momentum is going to shift a little because it’s our home rink.”

History doesn’t bode well for the Kings, who’ve never been down 2-0 in a playoff series and come back to win it. But Brett Hull isn’t writing them off yet.

“The next two aren’t going to be easy,” said Hull, who has yet to score for St. Louis. “A couple years ago we got spanked pretty good in the first two games against Detroit and came back and we won the next three. It’s a long way from over, but it sure gives us a confidence boost.”