These Players Get Non-Ringing Endorsement

In recent years, the Kings were a must-call for teams looking to make a deal before the trade deadline. Not this year, which was a surprise for General Manager Dave Taylor.

“It wasn’t like it had been the last couple of years when teams were calling to pick your carcass sort of thing, when you are out of the playoffs and teams are looking to acquire some players,” Taylor said Tuesday after the Kings failed to make a deal. “We were doing more of the initiating of phone calls, seeing who might be available and who might help us.”

Late word around the league had the Kings seeking a goal scorer to help overcome the loss of Luc Robitaille, who had surgery to repair a groin/abdominal injury March 2. But the Kings decided not to risk changing the team’s makeup heading into the playoffs.

“We had some conversations, but I don’t think that we got close to anything,” Taylor said. “With Luc out, we felt that we would have liked to maybe acquire an another scorer. But now we hope to get Luc back by the end of the regular season and hopefully healthy and rested at that time.

“We were in a situation where we liked our chemistry all year and our team has kind of meshed together, so we weren’t looking to break that up.”

*

Center Jason Morgan was recalled after spending one day with Springfield of the American Hockey League and right wing Vitali Yachmenev was brought up on emergency recall after spending a week with the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the International Hockey League. . . . The Kings signed goaltender Mike Buzak of the Ice Dogs for the rest of the season. Buzak leads the IHL with a 1.94 goals-against average.