The Measure of the Kings Is Not the Regular Season

The NHL season means nothing.

After seeing the second-seeded Washington Capitals upset by the seventh-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in the East, the top-ranked St. Louis Blues go to a seventh game tonight against the eighth-seeded Sharks and the fifth-seeded Kings shut out twice by Detroit in four games, it’s impossible to think anything else.

What does it mean when teams earn 102 points, as the Capitals did, or 94 points, as the Kings did, and exit the playoffs with barely a whimper? What’s the good of winning in February and March, but not April and May?

The seeding system may have contributed to the Kings’ swift demise. Had the seedings been based on points, the Red Wings would have been second in the West. But because they were in the same division as the Blues, who had a league-leading 114 points, the Red Wings were seeded behind the Blues and the other division winners, the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. So it wasn’t a meeting of the fourth- and fifth-best teams.

But that doesn’t excuse the Kings’ failure. As in their 1998 playoff loss to St. Louis, they lacked discipline and took needless penalties. Their leaders didn’t lead. Their scorers didn’t score. You can’t win the Stanley Cup if you don’t win a playoff game.

Winning one game would have been a psychological boost for the Kings, a vindication for their decisions to replace Larry Robinson with Andy Murray and to acquire Ziggy Palffy and Bryan Smolinski. They couldn’t get even that much, and it will bother them all summer.

As it should.

Instead of insisting they came so close to the Red Wings, the Kings must analyze where they fell so far short. They need speed and skill up front and must devise new elements in their power play. They must have two scoring lines to be a threat in the playoffs, when opponents can key on one line. Above all, they must perform under pressure. If the players they have can’t do that, it’s time to find others who can.

“Coming into the playoffs and losing like this, it’s frustrating. I think we’re better than how we played in this round,” goalie Stephane Fiset said. “You always learn from losing. We should all be thinking about next year now.”

They should be thinking about how to win a game in next year’s playoffs, not how to get 94 points.

WINGS ARE RED MENACE

The Red Wings, like the Kings, took too many penalties in their first-round series. But the Red Wings atoned for that with perfect penalty killing (23 for 23), solid defensive play and Chris Osgood’s strong goaltending. “They got a good team to do it again this year,” King forward Ian Laperriere said of the Red Wings, the 1997 and 1998 Cup winners. “[Osgood] made some great saves. He’s a good goalie. Him, Martin Lapointe, Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper--they all played well. The sick thing is it’s not even their big guys who made the difference.”

Lapointe, Maltby and Draper played big, especially while killing penalties. “It’s a little bit luck, but we take a lot of pride in it,” Maltby said. “Obviously, our goaltender made some good saves and we cleared rebounds, but it’s rare to kill that many penalties in a row.

“One good thing is once it got to double digits, the pressure started building and [the Kings] started to push a little more than they wanted to.”

FLYING HIGHER

The key to the Flyers’ first-round victory over the Buffalo Sabres was their ability to clog the neutral zone, which prevented the Sabres from using their speed to create rushes. When the Sabres tried to grind it out, the Flyers’ size wore them down; the Flyers also refused to be intimidated by Buffalo goalie Dominik Hasek, crowding the net enough to distract him.

As in every series, special teams were crucial. The Flyers’ power play was nine for 28, while the Sabres’ power play converted three of 18 opportunities. In addition, 23-year-old rookie Brian Boucher was exceptional in goal for the Flyers, showing no signs of nerves and standing up to traffic around his net.

The Flyers were 4-0-1 against the Penguins, their second-round opponent, but that doesn’t mean much. The Penguins gained confidence in defeating Washington in five games, led by Jaromir Jagr’s 10 points, Ron Tugnutt’s clutch goaltending and the four goals and seven points from first-line center Jan Hrdina before a muscle strain kept him out of Games 4 and 5. The Penguins have more skill than the Sabres and a better power play, but the Flyers are bigger and more cohesive defensively.

However, the Flyers didn’t impress Hasek.

“They’re a good team, but honestly, I think they can win maybe one more round,” he said. “I don’t think they can go all the way. They’ve been really lucky on the power play, but I don’t think they’ll be lucky like that all the way. You can’t score that many power-play goals every game.”

The Flyers said Monday that Coach Roger Neilson, recovered from treatments for bone marrow cancer, will return for the second round but interim Coach Craig Ramsay will remain behind the bench. It’s an eerie turnabout for Neilson: He filled in for Harry Neale as coach of the Vancouver Canucks in 1982 after Neale was suspended and did so well, he kept the job after Neale was eligible to return and led the Canucks to the Cup finals, where they lost to the New York Islanders.

DOGGING IT

It’s comforting to have one constant every spring: the Phoenix Coyotes losing in the first round.

Their five-game loss to Colorado extended their playoff losing streak to 10 series, stretching to 1987 when they were the Winnipeg Jets. It also may spell the end of Keith Tkachuk’s Coyote career, with the club in a financial crunch and his salary due to rise to $8.3 million next season.

The Coyotes had a good start but couldn’t sustain it, and General Manager Bobby Smith didn’t help by refusing to trade or re-sign goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. The goalie’s holdout forced Smith to scramble to acquire Sean Burke, who is average at best. And by not getting anything for Khabibulin, Smith sentenced the Coyotes to play short-handed all season.

Major changes may be in store. Owner Richard Burke is selling the club to developer Steve Ellman, who plans to build an arena in nearby Scottsdale. Knowing he will lose money until a new building opens, Ellman may slash the payroll, which could start with trading Tkachuk. An overhaul of some sort is necessary, because the Coyotes have too much talent to flop every spring.

SLAP SHOTS

The Blues, who tied their series against the Sharks, 3-3, Sunday, will win today at St. Louis. After letting the Sharks rough them up, the Blues adjusted and began to fight through checks instead of conceding territory and possession. Even without center Pavol Demitra (concussion), the Blues have the depth to advance. . . . The Capitals outshot the Penguins in all five games of their series, but the Penguins set a fast tempo and disrupted the Capitals’ defensive game. Most-valuable-player candidate Olie Kolzig didn’t distinguish himself in goal for Washington, but he often got little help. . . . The Dallas Stars had remarkable offensive balance in their five-game victory over Edmonton. Eleven players had at least one goal, and Mike Modano was the only player to score more than one. The Stars expect winger Jere Lehtinen (injured ankle) and defenseman Sergei Zubov (knee sprain) to return for the second round.

Bruin General Manager Harry Sinden’s announcement that he will retain Coach Pat Burns was a surprise. Sinden supposedly got Burns to promise the team will play a more aggressive style, but Sinden must supply offensive talent to back that up. Only a cynic would suggest Sinden kept him because the Bruins would have owed Burns $975,000 if they had fired him, but this is a cynical business. . . . The Sabres face a busy and costly summer. Many of their core players are eligible for free agency, including defensemen Jason Woolley and Alex Zhitnik, and forwards Michael Peca, Geoff Sanderson, Dixon Ward, Erik Rasmussen and Vladimir Tsyplakov. Signing them will inflate an already onerous $40-million payroll, but holding the financial line may produce more contract squabbles. The absences of holdouts Miroslav Satan, Curtis Brown, Vaclav Varada, Jay McKee and Rhett Warrener early this season contributed to a bad start the Sabres couldn’t overcome.

Ottawa goaltender Tom Barrasso apologized for using an obscenity during a Canadian TV interview, but he earned more forgiveness by playing well in Games 4 and 5 of the Senators’ series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. . . . King forward Jason Blake and Mighty Duck right wing Jeff Nielsen were added to Team USA’s roster for the World Championships, which begin Saturday at St. Petersburg, Russia. King defensemen Aki Berg and Jere Karalahti will play for Finland, as will winger Marko Tuomainen, and defenseman Mattias Norstrom will represent Sweden. Reports from Europe say Duck center Antti Aalto will play for Finland and center Jorgen Jonsson will play for Sweden, but a club spokesman said that hasn’t been confirmed.