Kings Tripping Over Own Feet

It’s not the chemistry. It’s the choreography.

Everybody likes each other. The locker room is a love-in, but on the ice, one of the Kings is doing a cha-cha, another a samba.

Ray Ferraro glided in on left wing Saturday night, with Glen Murray moving in from the right, St. Louis defenseman Jamie Rivers at their mercy and goalie Grant Fuhr in their sights.

There was a path 18 inches wide between his feet ready to be sliced with the puck, but instead Ferraro’s pass in the general direction of Murray was broken up easily by Rivers and the Blues went the other way in a 5-2 win over the Kings before 16,621 at the Kiel Center.

A pass to Yanic Perreault on Fuhr’s doorstep was a foot, maybe 18 inches wide of the mark. A centering pass to Olli Jokinen was just behind him.

And on it goes for the Kings, losers of three in a row, eight of their last 10, 14 of their last 17.

If it was a barn dance, the barn burned down.

“Actually, I thought we had some pretty good chances tonight,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “When we came back and made it 2-1, I thought we had basically taken control of the game.”

Jozef Stumpel banged in a rebound of his own shot from close in at 8:13 of the second period to cut the St. Louis lead in half. Before that play, the Kings had treated the ice around the Blues’ goal as if it were quarantined.

From then, buoyed by Stumpel’s goal, they attacked Fuhr, who had pretty much treated their first dozen or so shots, mostly from blue-line range, with the disdain they deserved.

But then came the third period.

“We made a couple of defensive errors in our zone and the next thing you know, bang-bang, and it was almost like ‘game over,’ ” Robinson said.

Bang, Todd Gill beat King defenseman Philippe Boucher to the outside and slipped a pass to Pavol Demitra, who had beaten Steve Duchesne to the goal. King goalie Jamie Storr had no chance.

Bang, Craig Conroy beat Mattias Norstrom to the puck behind the King net. Conroy slipped it to Scott Young, who had beaten Sean O’Donnell to get in position for the shot.

Only 18 seconds had elapsed between the bullets, and it was game over for Storr, who was given the final 15:46 off in favor of Manny Legace.

Ferraro scored to cut the score to 4-2 with a power-play goal, but Mike Eastwood countered for St. Louis with an empty-net goal.

Robinson shuffled lines, moving Stumpel with wingers Murray and Luc Robitaille; moving Jokinen to a center spot vacated by Stumpel between Vladimir Tsyplakov and Craig Johnson; and moving Perreault to the fourth line.

That was the way things started. Before the night was over, Robinson was shuffling lines and positions on them, all the while trying to get more offense, any kind of spark to burn away the Kings’ doldrums.

Perhaps there is a match to be lit tonight in Chicago.

Defenseman Rob Blake, the team’s captain and best player, has finished his three-game suspension.

And there is a good chance that Donald Audette, who was holding out until being signed Friday after a trade from Buffalo, will play. On which line is anybody’s guess.

Including Robinson’s, who liked what he saw of Audette in a pickup game Saturday.

“I make them up in my sleep,” Robinson cracked.

And has he gotten much sleep lately?

“No,” he said.

As much as anything, bet on Audette joining one of the power-play units. He led Buffalo with 10 power-play goals last season and had no idea what he was getting into upon signing with the Kings.

“I haven’t looked at the stats,” he said.

Informed the Kings were rocking along at 8% efficiency before Saturday, he said, “Wow.”

Wow, indeed, and even the one for four against the Blues made it only 13 for 141 this season, still only 9%, still worst in the NHL.

Still stumbling around the dance floor.