Without Much Effort, Kings Suddenly on a Losing Streak

They were like the guy in the office who finds time for a little work between a lot of coffee breaks. You know, the guy you wish was on commission instead of salary.

The Kings found time to score a few goals, time to kill a few penalties, but couldn’t be bothered with the big picture, Saturday’s game against Montreal.

Twice the Canadiens’ Dainius Zubrus answered questions posed by Ziggy Palffy goals, and those answers enabled Montreal to pass a test, 5-3, before an announced sellout of 18,118.

Remember that 23-1 shooting disadvantage during the third period Tuesday night against Chicago? It was more trouble Saturday at Staples Center, where the Kings lost their second game in a row for the first time this season.

“It’s tough, but it’s a good sign that it’s taken 22 games to do that,” defenseman Rob Blake offered.

Wrong answer, Captain.

“Our big thing is that we step up and take responsibility,” Coach Andy Murray said. “If anybody is hiding out on [reporters], I want to know. There’s a clear message here: We did not play very well, and it’s really tough to figure it out.”

To help:

* The power play went powerless again in seven opportunities. That, after going 0 for 7 on Thursday against Phoenix. And going 0 for its last 21 against the world.

“We’re not executing,” Blake said, “and by executing, I don’t mean shooting or getting chances. I mean getting the puck in the net.”

Said Murray of the power play: “It’s awful. We have some pretty good players on the power-play unit. It’s not like we haven’t practiced it.”

* The defense was offensive.

“We’re making turnovers when we have clear possession,” Murray said. “Our defense has played well this season, but our defense tonight, certainly three of our six defensemen did not play up to standards.”

Said Blake: “We’d make turnovers and they would end up in the net.”

That they did.

Montreal, which had averaged an anemic 1.9 goals a game before Saturday, got scores from Sergei Zholtok and and Patrick Poulin within a 4:10 span of the first period to take a 2-0 lead.

The Kings had taken four shots on their first power play, a radical departure from their recent norm and a sign that things were on the mend . . . like a robin in a snowstorm is a false sign of spring in Quebec.

They had only three shots on the net--none of them for goals--in six more power plays. None of those came during a solid minute of five-on-three play near the end of the first period, though Palffy had a near-miss when his redirection of Donald Audette’s pass rang off the goal post.

Palffy, who started the game playing with the first line, then switched with second-line winger Audette to try to put some more energy into both units, made it 2-1 by poking in his rebound at 14:37 of the first period.

And then it was Zubrus’ turn for 3-1.

And Marko Tuomainen, for 3-2.

And Montreal’s Martin Rucinsky, for 4-2.

And Palffy, for 4-3.

And Zubrus again, with an empty net.

“It’s hard, when you score a goal and you’re pumped up to score another goal, when they score,” Palffy said. “When you’re two goals behind all night, it’s very hard.”

On Saturday night, it was impossible . . . and against a team that lost, 6-1, at Nashville only 48 hours, give or take a couple of time zones, earlier.

“It was a loss that their reporters said was one of the worst in the history of the franchise,” Murray said.

That’s 11 reporters traveling with a franchise that has been in business since 1917.

But a day of practice, and a night in which players dined together without coaches, the better to air various tales of woe, seemed to have an effect.

So too did the competition.

“We looked tonight like a team that is not playing good hockey, and [for] most of the season, we have played well,” Murray said. “So what we need to do is get a return to the form we showed earlier.”

The one before they lost two games in a row.