Kings Pancaked by New Jersey, 7-1

As flat spots go, this was Florida.

And then it became Death Valley.

The Kings’ hierarchy has been concerned about dormant stretches, when the shots-on-goal statistics look like election returns in a dictatorship, and they ran into a biggie Tuesday night in New Jersey.

First-period goals by Claude Lemieux, Patrik Elias and Randy McKay contributed to the worst King start of the season, and by game’s end it was their worst performance, a 7-1 loss to the Devils before an announced 10,807.

“I usually say something to them after the game, but this time I said I wanted time to think about it,” said King Coach Andy Murray, outwardly calm but seemingly a bit shaken by it all.

“I said that we would talk at a team meal back at the hotel.”

That conversation should be a bit one-sided.

“This is the first time all season I’ve felt that we haven’t been competitive,” Murray said.

New Jersey had six shots before the Kings conjured up one, by Ziggy Palffy, and among those six were goals by Lemieux and Elias.

It wasn’t as though the Devils were running roughshod. They didn’t have to traverse much ice to score any of their three first-period goals because all followed King turnovers in their defensive zone.

And all three came against goalie Jamie Storr, who perhaps had chances at two of them and didn’t see any shots after the first. Stephane Fiset, himself dormant since Nov. 9 because of a bruised hand, was brought in to start the second.

“Jamie wasn’t getting much support from the other players,” Murray said. “Jamie didn’t deserve this.”

Said Storr, who shrugged off the loss and will start again tonight against the New York Rangers: “Stuff happens. I felt I was seeing the puck OK. . . . It seemed like they were shooting closer than usual; like, shots that usually are out by the faceoff circle were much closer in.”

Fiset fared little better. He also was the victim of King turnovers that kept the goal under assault.

Donald Audette led a charge with linemates Bryan Smolinski and Glen Murray against Scott Stevens and beat New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur at 8:08 of the second to make the score 3-1.

For a bit, the goal seemed to open up the flow of the game, but Fiset’s luck ran out when New Jersey’s John Madden intercepted a pass in the neutral zone while the Kings were on the power play. Madden fired what looked more like a clearing effort than a shot, but it hit defenseman Rob Blake’s stick, ounced on the ice then over Fiset at 12:19.

It was the sixth short-handed goal surrendered by the Kings, who have scored one.

Only 49 seconds later, Jay Pandolfo intercepted a pass from Aki Berg and had no one between him and Fiset: 5-1.

“Bryan Smolinski’s line [was] on the ice for a goal, and we are talking about accountability, so we left them out there for the faceoff,” Andy Murray said. “And they were scored on again.”

It became 6-1 when Jason Arnott scored on a power play, 1:58 before the second period mercifully ended.

“Between the periods, [the coaches] got together and considering benching people who didn’t deserve to play in the third,” Andy Murray said. “We came up with about nine people. . . . And then we thought about it, and decided . . . maybe they wouldn’t want to play.”

So they played. And the number of defensemen among the nine, Murray wouldn’t say. He did say there were enough to start the period but a rotation “would be tough.”

By game’s end, defensive liabilities were everywhere: Glen Murray was minus-5; Smolinski and Berg were minus-4.

“We just have to say, ‘This can’t be happening again,’ ” Berg said. “It’s a good thing that we have a game [tonight against the Rangers].”

Not if they play the way they did against the Devils.

*

HELENE ELLIOTT

Devils’ rookie Scott Gomez adds color to the NHL landscape. Page 3.