Little Things Killing Kings

As Thursday began, the Kings gathered downstairs in their downtown hotel to chide each other, push each other and generally seek to solve the apparently unsolvable.

As Thursday ended, Rick Dudley, Ottawa’s general manager, walked past the Kings’ Doug Bodger and said, “You guys should have won tonight.”

In between, there was soul-searching, a bit of blame-finding, some arithmetic and a 3-1 loss to the Senators that was eerily similar to one at Montreal on Monday and another at Toronto on Wednesday.

Alexei Yashin’s goal at 10:09 of the third period was the difference.

Magnus Arvedson’s empty-net goal merely changed the final accounting.

“We thought we were going to win,” said an emotional Luc Robitaille, whose goal, 15 seconds into the final period, tied the score, 1-1.

“We outplayed the team, and they got a lucky . . . break and they scored. Our guys battled. Everybody played their hearts out. When you play like that . . . it’s very disappointing not to come up with any damn points.”

It’s the fourth game in a row in which the Kings haven’t come up with any points, the 10th time in 11 games. They have only five points since Oct. 28.

All of these points were made Thursday morning.

As was the reason that it has been such a pointless five weeks.

Some Kings haven’t been pulling their weight. Effort has been sporadic and scattered. The power play has been powerless, and the Kings have been pointless.

And Thursday morning, they were pragmatic.

“We know this month, this is like playoff time for us,” Robitaille said. “If we want to make the playoffs, we’ve got to win this month and we’re going to play every game like it’s our last game.”

And so they outhit Ottawa before 15,351 at the Corel Centre. And they outshot the Senators, 32-18.

Eric Lacroix, Ray Ferraro, Robitaille, Vladimir Tsyplakov, seemingly everybody had shots within an arm’s length of Ottawa goalie Ron Tugnutt, and he turned them back.

“We had to address an issue and we addressed it,” Bodger said. “But we had the same result. We needed effort. We got it.”

They needed goals. They got one.

“Three goals in the last four games,” Bodger said. “You’re not going to win like that.”

They haven’t, and the losses have come for the same reasons.

“The fact of the matter is that we haven’t been playing all that bad over the last four or five days, but we’re still guilty of making that little mistake at the wrong time and then having to take it out of our net,” Coach Larry Robinson said.

“If you can remember the mistakes . . . “

It’s because they’re turning into opposition goals.

“That’s the way it’s been, very simply,” Robinson said. “That’s the way it was at Montreal: Three mistakes, three goals.”

Two mistakes, two goals Thursday night, excusing the empty-net goal as the sort of thing that happens in times of despair.

Mistake No. 1 involved defensemen Mattias Norstrom and Sean O’Donnell, who were trying to play keep-away with the puck until the Kings changed lines.

“I could have cleared it, but I gave it to Sean, and he probably could have cleared it, but he gave it back to me and we backpedaled and then I turned it over and it cost us a goal,” Norstrom said.

Andreas Johansson scored it, firing past the stick side of goalie Stephane Fiset at 17:31.

Robitaille answered on a pass from Glen Murray to open the third period.

Mistake No. 2 involved Olli Jokinen turning the puck over in the Ottawa zone, sending everybody on a merry chase to the other end. Yashin won the chase and the puck at the end boards, flipped it behind him to square his body and fired past Fiset for a 2-1 lead.

The anniversary of the last time the Kings won a game in which they trailed going into the third period is Jan. 20, 1999.

Yashin’s shot was only Ottawa’s 12th of the game. By then, the Kings had 25.

“If you can come into a building as a visitor, and I think they only had eight or 10 shots after two periods and they’re supposed to be one of the better teams in the league, you can’t get mad at anybody,” said Robinson. “You can’t fault anybody. We’ve got a huge black cloud that’s over our heads right now.”

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* DUCKS LOSE TOO

Anaheim’s winless streak reaches five games after 4-1 setback in Chicago. Page 4