Robinson Gets in His Rips After Kings Lose to Sharks

So the first half of the season is over, the Kings’ 41st game ending as so many of the previous 40 had.

Without scoring.

With turnovers.

With an angry coach.

Oh, and somebody turned off the Kings’ power play in their 4-0 loss to the Sharks on Monday night.

Again.

What had become a real manpower advantage in the last six games reverted to no advantage at all Monday night, the Kings going 0 for 6 on the power play and failing to overtake San Jose for eighth place in the Western Conference, which is where they quit counting playoff teams.

It ended a points binge in which the Kings had gone 5-0-1 in their last six games, rocketing up the standings like a Rob Blake slap shot.

“I’m embarrassed,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “After the first 10 minutes, we didn’t do anything that we talked about in our game plan. I thought it was one of our worst efforts this year. We deserved to lose, 4-0.”

After two games of playing sieve against the Kings, goalie Mike Vernon became a stone wall Monday night, turning back 30 shots in the eighth shutout of his Shark career, which ties a team record.

He had given up nine goals in previous games against the Kings, but Monday’s game proved no challenge. Vernon also got plenty of offensive support from goals by Bill Houlder in the first period, Joe Murphy in the second and Dave Lowry and Alex Korolyuk in the third, and drew some energy from his exploits in the early going.

That’s when he turned off the Kings and turned on his teammates.

Donald Audette, Luc Robitaille and Vladimir Tsyplakov had point-blank shots at Vernon early in the first period, and only Audette came close to a goal, hitting the post on a power-play effort.

The Kings had the first seven shots, but thereafter fired blanks. Vernon could have played goalie in a rocking chair, save for a brief foray from Tsyplakov with 5:36 to play in the game.

“He saw every shot,” Robinson said. “Aside from a couple of tries by Tsyplakov, nobody went to the front of the net. Everybody stayed outside and tried to one-time shots. That’s where you score goals: from in front of the net.”

It ended a first half in which the Kings went 15-22-4, and in which they also had 53 roster moves and lost 185 man-games because of injuries.

Oh, and they were last in the NHL in powerless play, going 20 for 177.

The Sharks had no such plight. Houlder’s goal, at 17:37 of the first period, came with the help of a Patrick Marleau screen and glanced off King goalie Stephane Fiset for a 1-0 lead.

It was accomplished on San Jose’s second power play, with the Kings’ Sandy Moger in the penalty box.

Murphy’s goal in the second period came directly in the face of King defenseman Steve Duchesne, who found himself overpowered near the crease after Murphy had taken a pass from Marleau.

Murphy’s goal was largely superfluous for the Sharks, whose Vernon was hardly challenged thereafter. He also was aided by San Jose forecheckers who aggressively pursued the King power play.

On one ignominious effort, the Kings failed to get the puck out of their end of the ice for the first 40 seconds of a second-period power play.

It was that kind of game for the Kings, who had so many of those games in a first half marked by six- and five-game losing streaks, but which had included the five-game run to respectability that ended one game short of the season’s midpoint.

“It’s starting to creep back in again,” said Robinson, plainly disgusted by the lack of physical play by his charges. “Guys are getting back into a comfort zone.”