Robitaille Downplays Mark

Another place in history was lost on Luc Robitaille in the aftermath of the Kings’ 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday night.

He became the 16th NHL player to score 500 goals for one team when he slapped a puck past Kevin Weekes at 16:19 of the final period during a six-skater power play, a sort of kamikaze rush brought about by a 4-1 deficit at the time.

“It really doesn’t matter tonight,” Robitaille said of the mark. “This is a disappointing loss and it’s two points we let out that we’re going to regret later.”

The list Robitaille joined is like a Who’s Who of hockey scorers. The top five are Gordie Howe (786 goals with Detroit), Steve Yzerman (630 and counting, Detroit), Mario Lemieux (613 and apparently counting, Pittsburgh), Bobby Hull (604, Chicago) and Wayne Gretzky (583, Edmonton).

Robitaille moved into 15th place with his second goal of the game Saturday, passing Bryan Trottier (500, N.Y. Islanders). Jean Beliveau (507, Montreal) is 14th.

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Ziggy Palffy’s status is day to day after leaving Saturday night’s game in the first period because of a strained hamstring. Sunday, he was examined and went through physical therapy. . . . Glen Murray has increased his skating to 30-45 minutes a day but indicates that he still has pain in his knee, which was injured during a Nov. 18 game against Colorado.

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NHL life for center Eric Belanger isn’t predictable: He reports for work, then finds out what his job is.

Belanger started the season as the first-line center, was demoted to Lowell when Jozef Stumpel ended his holdout, came back to the Kings as a fourth-line center after amassing 18 points in his first 10 games in the AHL, and then moved up to the Kings’ first line when Stumpel was injured against the New York Rangers.

When all of the Kings return to the ice, Belanger will be a fourth-line center again, playing six to 10 minutes a game. To him, that’s better than the 20-plus minutes he had at Lowell.

“It’s part of the game,” he said of the yo-yo effect. “It just means that every shift is important because you never know what’s going to happen.”