Coach Tries to Shift Focus

Everybody seemed to want to sidestep the problem Sunday, attributing the Kings’ 5-3 loss to Philadelphia on Saturday to too much respect for the Flyers, to playing a bad game, to it being the first game at home after a trip, to. . . .

How about to losing two-thirds of your first line within 24 hours because of injury?

“If we’re looking for people to feel sorry for us, we’re going to have a tough time,” said Coach Andy Murray after meeting with the Kings for about 10 minutes Sunday morning and giving them a numerical assessment of their play.

Fourteen players were judged to have played below average.

That was followed by a longer meeting with the team’s captains to deal with the loss of center Jozef Stumpel and winger Luc Robitaille because of injuries. Stumpel has a hernia that will be operated on today. Robitaille has a broken bone in his foot.

“I don’t think Edmonton [which plays the Kings Tuesday] is going to be sorry for us,” said Murray of the spirit of denial concerning Robitaille and Stumpel. “I don’t think [reporters] are going to feel sorry for us, TV people to feel sorry, Dave Taylor [the team’s senior vice president and general manager], Tim Leiweke [president] are going to feel sorry for us.”

To adjust, Murray is appealing to the veterans for stability, and he is planning for the return of Len Barrie, a center who was to play Sunday for Long Beach. Today he is expected at the Iceoplex.

He and Jason Blake competed for time as the fourth-line center in training camp, and then Barrie won out when Blake injured his knee. Barrie spent time with the second line when the coaches were trying to send center Bryan Smolinski a message, then went back to the fourth and was sent to Long Beach when Blake’s injury healed. Now Barrie and Blake will vie for time as the first-line center until Stumpel returns in eight to 12 weeks.

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The players first learned that Stumpel was sidelined at a pregame meeting at 5:50.

“They had dealt with the Robitaille situation and had parked it,” Murray said. “Many of them didn’t know the Stumpel situation. It was a bit of a shock to their system to learn about it just before the game.”

The shock was such that they had four shots in the first period, nine through 40 minutes.

Stumpel had come to Staples Center ready to play, but was held out by the coaches. “Sometimes to protect an injury, you hurt something else,” Murray said.

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To get Ziggy Palffy playing time Saturday, he was double-shifted with the fourth line, replacing Steve McKenna, who was doing time in the penalty box for fighting. By night’s end, Palffy had played 25 minutes 21 seconds, compared with 14:50 for Marko Tuomainen, the other wing on the line with Palffy.

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Donald Audette knew he had made a mistake Saturday when he took a 10-minute misconduct penalty after firing a puck at a referee. “I didn’t know he was there,” said Audette, “but I know it was stupid. “With those two guys [Robitaille and Stumpel] out, I had to stay on the ice.”