Kings Stuck Behind 8 Puck

Excuse that two-game debacle in New York and environs earlier in the week as a blip on the radar screen, if you insist, but when coupled with the Saturday night massacre at Staples Center, the situation officially becomes a crisis.

Somebody call the fire department, or maybe the National Guard.

And will the last one out please turn off the red light?

Put those playoff reservations on hold because:

* Goal by Chicago’s Doug Zmolek.

* Goal by Tony Amonte.

* Goal by Jean-Pierre Dumont.

* Goal by Dave Manson.

Save for Amonte’s 15th goal, we’re talking about players who score only occasionally, but whose first-period occasions led Chicago to an 8-4 win before 18,118, the Kings’ fifth sellout.

Their loudest ovations over that 20 minutes were (1) when goalie Stephane Fiset stopped a shot by Eric Daze after failing to stop enough of the others; and (2) when the horn sounded ending the opening onslaught.

They can be excused. It’s hard to applaud while holding your nose.

It’s a familiar scene, last seen in New York on Wednesday, when the Kings gave up six goals in the opening period; and New Jersey a night earlier, when the Kings gave up three. In all, they have given up 23 goals over their last three games.

“We’ve hit rock bottom,” said Coach Andy Murray. “But then again] I thought we hit rock bottom in New Jersey.”

Instead, it was the beginning of a free-fall and the parachute has yet to open.

“Everything that could go wrong with us did go wrong,” said Murray, who spent 11 postgame minutes addressing the Kings, singling out transgressors with questions that were prefaced with “Why did you . . . ?”

The questions were rhetorical. There were no appropriate answers.

Bryan Smolinski’s goal matched that of Zmolek for a 1-1 tie that was as fleeting as the Kings’ early season NHL dominance.

Amonte countered Smolinski’s goal with a shot from outside that was helped by Bob Probert’s wrestling match with the Kings’ Mattias Norstrom that occupied Fiset’s view.

The tie was broken in only 38 seconds.

The rout began 58 seconds later when Dumont gloved a pass from Daze at the blue line. Dumont’s shot went off Fiset’s leg and the goal post for a 3-1 lead.

That became 4-1 when Manson scored on a power play, which was about time. The Blackhawks spent 10:06 of the opening period with a man-advantage, 57 seconds of that two men up. Until Manson let go from the faceoff circle to Fiset’s left at 5-on-4 odds, all Chicago found was power-play futility.

By game’s end, the Blackhawks were four for eight on the power play.

Things had gotten worse after the first period at New Jersey, better at New York. Saturday night’s game did a New Jersey imitation when Sylvain Cote batted home a pass from Doug Gilmour at 1:17 of the second period on another Blackhawk power play.

And Dumont’s second goal, scored at 8:41, made it 6-1 and prompted Murray to dismiss Fiset for the evening. If things were going to get better, they were going to do so for Marcel Cousineau.

“Right at the start, I didn’t make the big save and keep this game close,” Fiset said. “No matter how the guys play in front of me, I have to make the save.”

Said Murray: “Our goaltending has not been at the level that we need to have it, that’s no question.”

For the third game in a row, there was a mid-game switch. Cousineau got goal support twice from Craig Johnson--his first two-goal game in the NHL--and from Ian Laperriere. The “stopper line” of Laperriere, Johnson and Marko Tuomainen was the Kings’ best all night.

That shouldn’t be.

“I don’t think so,” Laperriere agreed.

Cousineau was touched by power-play goals from Steve Sullivan and Bryan McCabe.

So the Kings go back to work today in a rare Sunday practice that precedes, of all things, a company Christmas party.

“The bottom line is that the guys care in the room,” Murray said. “We’re all bleeding in this together.”

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Awful Starts

The Kings have given up a combined 13 goals in the first periods of their last three games, all losses:

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Date Opponent 1st Final Dec. 14 Devils 3-0 7-1 Dec. 15 Rangers 6-0 8-3 Dec. 18 Blackhawks 4-1 8-4

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