Kings Took Long Trip to End Up in Same Place

If there are no atheists in foxholes, the same is true of hockey coaches who face 0-3 deficits in a best-of-seven playoff series.

After considering personnel changes for what may be the Kings’ season finale tonight at Staples Center, Andy Murray said Tuesday he will stick with the lineup that has gotten the team this far because, “This is what’s going to deliver us from evil.”

Now that Murray has found religion, maybe he can find a power play that will deliver the Kings from being swept by the Detroit Red Wings.

The first three games have been replays of the Kings’ last playoff foray, in 1998, and that’s not a good omen. In both series, the Kings lost a game in which their opponent scored eight goals, they lost several close games and were outscored by a 2-1 margin. They also took too many unnecessary penalties and couldn’t kill nearly enough of them.

“We’re making the same mistakes,” center Ian Laperriere said. “We’re taking way too many penalties. We shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Two years ago, it was the St. Louis Blues who outscored the Kings, 16-8, in a first-round sweep. The names have changed, but the pattern is identical--and ominous:

Against the Blues, the Kings were one for 29 on the power play (3.4%) and killed 28 of 36 penalties (77.8%). In three games against the Red Wings, the Kings are 0 for 16 on the power play and have killed 14 of 19 disadvantages (73.7%). Overall, the Kings have been outscored, 12-6.

“It doesn’t look good when the last two years you’re in the playoffs, you don’t win a game,” right wing Glen Murray said. “But this is a different year and we’re playing a different team. Detroit was the Stanley Cup champion two of the last three years.”

But it probably won’t be much consolation that when the Kings go through the traditional handshake line at end of the series, they will congratulate a better team than they did two years ago.

The issue is whether the Kings are better than they were in 1998. Without a playoff victory, they appear to be doing little more than running in place.

Players insist that isn’t so.

“We’ve got a better lineup than we had two years ago,” Laperriere said. “We’ve got Bryan Smolinski, Ziggy Palffy and Kelly Buchberger. We’re a lot better team.”

But so are the Blues, Red Wings, Dallas Stars and maybe the Colorado Avalanche.

Have the Kings really gained much by having a solid season if they follow it with another quick playoff exit?

Andy Murray has said he doesn’t think the playoffs are much different from the season, a stance he acknowledged he adopted in an effort to prevent his players from putting too much pressure on themselves.

That might have backfired. If they can’t take this pressure, they can’t possibly withstand the grind of two or three or even four series.

Murray sought continuity in his approach and the atmosphere he created, but surviving in the playoffs requires almost a siege mentality that’s impossible to maintain for 82 games. It’s more than a step up from their everyday level--it’s an entire staircase.

“If you lose four games in the playoffs, you’re out. During the season, if you lose four games you still have 78 to go,” Laperriere said. “But I don’t think that mentally it’s that big a difference from a player’s standpoint. The pressure in the playoffs can’t change you--you’ve still got to do your job.”

Which is where the Kings are failing. Their power play was one of their strengths this season. They converted 16.9% of their chances. Their penalty killing was a mediocre 82.3% and has gotten worse.

“Why do we take that many penalties? I don’t know. I just don’t have a clue,” Laperriere said. “We deserve every penalty we got. The retaliation penalties, at this point of the season you’re not supposed to see that. Maybe some guys can’t hold their emotions.”

That’s not acceptable. Not after doing so much to restore their credibility by acquiring Palffy and Smolinski.

The Kings mortgaged a large chunk of their future to win this season, because they needed to fill a shiny new arena and reestablish their presence in a crowded Los Angeles sports scene. The trade is defensible. To squander this chance because they can’t control their frustrations is not.

The Red Wings are superior in many areas, but they’re not unbeatable. The Kings are only making them seem that way.

“It’s very frustrating to the players and to ourselves as coaches,” Andy Murray said. “I’m sure players that took retaliatory penalties [in Game 3] went home and said, ‘What the heck am I doing?’

“When the game is on the line . . . you want players who want the puck. . . . I thought we had players who didn’t want that responsibility. . . . That’s all I ask our players to do--seize the moment.”

Murray still thinks the Kings can compete with the Red Wings, even though Detroit has displayed a knack for staying just far enough ahead to win.

“I would have felt over the last 20 games we would have been prepared for what’s happening now,” he said. “That’s the one thing for our organization. We’re pretty darn close, and we’ve got to learn from this. We’re pretty darn close and we’re still trying to get closer. . . .

“We’ve been on the doorstep. It’s a matter of crossing the threshold.”

Not when the door is locked and has a Red Wing logo on it.