Kings Can’t Stop Their Latest Fall

Uncertainty over whether Rob Blake will be traded might be distracting his teammates, but that isn’t the reason the Kings trail the top teams in the Western Conference.

Whether Blake stays or goes, the Kings won’t get anywhere with the porous goaltending they’ve had most of the season. Coach Andy Murray drove that point home Tuesday, when he started Steve Passmore against the San Jose Sharks instead of Jamie Storr and let Storr learn of the switch with the rest of the team at the morning skate, instead of telling Storr privately.

Passmore played well in stopping 30 shots in a 2-1 loss, but it was his misfortune that the Sharks started Evgeni Nabokov, one of the NHL’s hottest goalies. The rookie from Kazakhstan stopped 29 shots before a standing room-only crowd of 18,460 at Staples Center, the largest ever to see a hockey game in Southern California.

Alexander Korolyuk’s shot from the right circle deflected off King winger Brad Chartrand over Passmore’s glove with 4:32 to play in the third period, extending the Kings’ winless streak to 0-5-1 and ending the Sharks’ season-worst two-game losing streak. San Jose leads the Pacific Division by five points over Dallas, while the Kings remain two points out of the eighth and final West playoff spot.

Passmore was blameless on the first Shark goal. Marco Sturm won the puck along the boards and passed it to the feet of Patrick Marleau, who set Jeff Friesen off on a breakaway. Passmore repelled Friesen’s shot, but Marleau adroitly skated around Passmore until he had almost no angle and swept the puck past the helpless goalie at the five-minute mark.

Craig Johnson tied it 1:20 into the third period, switching from his backhand to his forehand for a close-in shot that bounced off Nabokov’s arm and popped up in the air, landing behind him. But as Johnson scored, he slid into the boards and suffered a deep laceration to his right ankle. He was to undergo surgery Tuesday night at Centinela Hospital.

Passmore was recalled from Chicago of the International Hockey League Tuesday on an emergency basis, a situation created when Stephane Fiset was put on injured reserve because of a sprained left knee. And emergency is the appropriate word to describe the Kings’ need for good goaltending, Passmore’s fine effort Tuesday aside.

“I thought we played a pretty good team game tonight,” Passmore said. “It ends up being decided by a bad bounce, which I understand has been happening around here.”

Although the Kings 122 goals is second to the New York Rangers’ 124 and they have had one of the NHL’s most potent power plays, their team goals-against average and save percentage are among the league’s worst. Neither Storr nor Fiset has managed to seize the starting job. Passmore, 27, is more likely a short-term salve than a long-term solution.

“I think we’re looking at all aspects of our team, but certainly our goaltending has not been as good as we’d like,” General Manager Dave Taylor said. “Steph had a promising training camp, and then he hurt his knee. He came back and was injured after a couple of performances we felt he could have done better.

“Jamie has had some good flashes. We were undefeated in eight games [Nov. 2-18] and he played pretty well. But we need more consistency. You look at the top teams, and they’ve gotten consistent goaltending. Our goals-against and save percentage are near the bottom, and we feel our goaltenders are better than that.”

Perhaps so. But it’s time for them to prove it.

“I’ve had a lot of talks with Jamie lately, and the bottom line is we need good goaltending,” Murray said.

They got it Tuesday from Passmore, who was 1-2-1 in October with a 2.80 goals-against average and .892 save percentage. He went to his knees to stop Mike Ricci on a short-handed break out of the penalty box at 6:58, keeping the Kings in the game until his teammates solved Nabokov. And he preserved the tie early in the third period, when he got the heel of his glove on a quick backhander by Korolyuk at the left post, with the Sharks applying pressure.

The Kings had several prime chances to test Nabokov, including a two-man advantage for 1:50 in the first period. The Kings produced four shots, to one by San Jose, Ricci’s short-handed break.

Perhaps buoyed by escaping that dangerous situation, the Sharks began to assert themselves and dominated the rest of the period. The Sharks had a 16-12 edge in shots for the period and a 24-17 advantage after two periods.

Ian Laperriere had the crowd gasping when he hit the crossbar nearly seven minutes into the final period, and Luc Robitaille inspired the same reaction when he intercepted an attempted clearing pass by Nabokov, who had gone behind the net to play the puck, and fired a shot from the right-wing boards before Nabokov could get back into position. San Jose defenseman Mike Rathje alertly stepped in front to knock away Robitaille’s shot.

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Hope Is Fading

It appears King defenseman Rob Blake is resigned to the fact that he will soon play his last game for franchise. D5