Robinson Wants to See Some Power Rebounding

By Rob Blake’s logic, the Kings have had two goals in their last 10 power plays, though the scoreboard disagrees.

“We scored two goals with it [at Vancouver],” Blake insisted.

But both were waved off, and the Kings are one for 12 on the power play in their first two games and 0 for their last 10.

Part of the reason is that opposing defenses are denying Steve Duchesne the puck whenever possible, and Duchesne was brought in this season as a free agent, in part to lead the first power play unit.

But Coach Larry Robinson sees something else.

After claiming that “for the most part it’s working all right,” he acknowledged that “right now, our [defensemen are] getting a little too anxious. They’re jumping down [toward the net]. It’s like they’re looking for the big play all of the time. We’re not just taking the shot that’s given to us.”

What he would rather see is Blake taking shots from the point and the Kings taking their chances at rebounds, rather than sending passes that can be broken up or intercepted. The move would tend to thin out the traffic around the crease that builds up when everybody crashes the net.

“On a shot, anything can happen,” Robinson said. “It can hit a stick and go left. It can hit a pad and go right. It puts everybody kind of in the same position in that nobody really knows where the rebound is going to go.”

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On the other hand, penalty killing has stood out for the Kings in their first two games. Vancouver’s third-period goal by Peter Zezel broke an 11-penalty streak of kills, and two opposition power plays resulted in short-handed goals by the Kings’ Yanic Perreault.

“We’re being much more assertive on our clearing,” Robinson said. “We were real guilty last year of poor clearing. Instead of getting it up and off the glass to where a guy can clear it in the zone, we were just shooting it blind and they were intercepting it and the next thing you know it’s in the net.”

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Most of the Kings took Wednesday off, but left wing Luc Robitaille and club officials presented sweaters to members of the Los Angeles City Council in advance of the team’s home opener Friday against the Boston Bruins. . . . Robitaille leads the Kings in shots with 14. Blake leads them in playing time, with 58 shifts totaling 52 minutes 49 seconds.