Kings Go Down Quietly to Coyotes

Wednesday began with heads stuck in newspapers, dissecting the standings in the locker room.

Yep, there it was, the Kings four points behind San Jose for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

By evening’s end, the same heads knew the four points had become six after two goals by Greg Adams and one by Jeremy Roenick had given Phoenix a 3-0 victory.

And after the Sharks had won, 5-2, at Chicago.

But forget the standings. Those heads should be redirected this morning.

“We’ve got some guys who need to do a mirror-check,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “They need to take a long look in the mirror to see if they’re willing to pay the price to play. . . .

“Not to play for me or to play for the fans or for the [general] manager. To play for their teammates. You’re letting your teammates down. That’s the thing that bothers me the most.”

The Kings played two solid defensive periods before an announced 14,377 Wednesday night and had enough offensive chances to hold a lead.

Instead, they were tied, 0-0, and you knew that the first goal scored was going to be huge.

Adams scored by spinning away from Sean O’Donnell’s defensive effort and redirecting a pass from Rick Tocchet past King goalie Jamie Storr.

“I just looked up [for the puck],” O’Donnell said. “[Adams] made a good play and I didn’t.”

It was all Phoenix needed.

“We had wanted to be a little conservative at the start,” Adams said. “As the game opened up, we began to take a few more chances.”

The Coyotes could afford to.

“They are a good defensive team, and when they get the first goal, they can basically play the style that they want,” said Storr, who caught his glove in his pads and surrendered the second goal, again from Adams, this time from near the blue line.

It was a bad goal and it gave Phoenix a 2-0 lead.

And the post-mortems could begin. The Kings opened last week down six points to San Jose and won two games, including one over the Sharks, to close the margin to two. Now, it’s as though last week didn’t happen, and games at the Great Western Forum against Philadelphia tonight and Dallas on Saturday loom large.

“Who cares about San Jose?” O’Donnell asked. “We’ve got to be concerned about ourselves.”

Particularly the team leaders.

“If you can’t get your best guys playing well, you’re not going to win,” Robinson said.

“We had some chances early, particularly on the power play. Luc hit the post. . . .”

It was a shot to a virtually open net, Phoenix goalie Nikolai Khabibulin being otherwise occupied.

“Maybe if I get that goal, it makes a difference,” Robitaille said. “All I know is that we’ve got to get 20 people playing. We’ve got to play really desperate hockey now.”

Desperate hockey, according to Robinson, involves getting into no man’s land around the net.

“The biggest difference between that team [Phoenix] and this is that guys like Tocchet, Roenick, Adams and [Keith] Tkachuk are willing to pay the price,” Robinson said. “Look at Garry Galley’s last shot.”

It was the Kings’ final flurry, and only the sixth shot they mustered in the third period. Galley took dead aim on Khabibulin and fired.

“We didn’t have anybody there for the rebound,” Robinson said.

The Kings seldom do when they lose.

It’s a reason for them to spend some of this morning looking in the mirror before they spend tonight looking at Philadelphia.