Storr Goes on Injured Reserve

In a move that smacks of too-little, too-late, the Kings put goalie Jamie Storr on injured reserve Thursday.

The decision was made six days after Storr hit his head on the crossbar of the goal during a collision with Montreal’s Martin Rucinsky, two days after Storr surrendered three goals in 14 shots at New Jersey and a day after he gave up six goals in a period against the New York Rangers.

“I never felt comfortable during those two games,” said Storr, who missed Thursday’s team meeting at the Great Western Forum to undergo medical tests, the results of which will be known today.

Nine goals in 40 minutes will make anybody uncomfortable.

“He felt a little dizzy [in Montreal], but the doctor looked at him and said he was OK,” Coach Andy Murray said.

Storr stayed in the game and stopped a penalty shot by Rucinsky, then beat the Canadiens, 4-2.

Examinations before the games against the Devils and Rangers also cleared him to play, but he proved ineffective and was replaced by Stephane Fiset in the second period of each game.

Fiset will start Saturday night against Chicago, and Marcel Cousineau has been recalled from Long Beach to back up.

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The team meeting lasted 65 minutes and a message was imparted.

The 7-1 loss to New Jersey and 8-3 loss to the New York Rangers on successive nights “was an embarrassment to the team,” winger Donald Audette said.

Murray did most of the talking, reminding the Kings that they are still in the playoff race, then going over several reasons for the New Jersey-New York nightmares.

Excuses--the system, conditioning, opportunity--were brought up and rejected, much as they were before the season began. Others--work ethic, attention to detail--well, that’s a different story.

And then there were the categories of play: saving energy on the defensive end to score, inconsistent effort, needing to play smarter, needing to play more physically.

“I thought about listing players under each category, but instead I asked them to think about it overnight and see where they belonged,” Murray said. “We’ll talk more about it [at practice today].”

Dismissing the two losses as a mere aberration isn’t a possibility.

“We didn’t get here [with 39 points, tied with Phoenix for fourth-most in the West] on a hope and a prayer,” Murray said. “We got here because we played pretty darn good hockey.

“Forty-eight hours ago, we had, I believe, the second-most goals in the league scored; we were sixth in goals-against; we were sixth in power play. . . . We’ve done some positive things with this team this year, and we didn’t just wish to be that way, we earned it.”

And then the wheels fell off, also a factor in Thursday’s meeting which finished with the requisite video, showing each of the 15 goals given up three times, with culprits named just before a quiet exit into the afternoon.