Kings Sorry to Say Goodbye, Columbus

They’re selling hockey hard in this town.

The sport and the status of being major league is for sale.

They’re even pushing the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are more of a knockoff than the real deal, a newcomer to the NHL and still a stranger to winning.

“It’s the last thing we talked about tonight before the game,” said King Coach Andy Murray on Monday after getting two goals from Luc Robitaille and one each from five others in a 7-1 victory before 18,136, a sellout in Nationwide Arena.

“They’re going to win some games. We wanted to make sure that their first win could come from their next opponent.”

The Kings were matter of fact about what they had to do.

“They worked hard,” said center Bryan Smolinski. “But we knew that if we worked hard, if we put an honest effort in, we win the game.”

And Columbus Coach Dave King was just as matter of fact. He smarted from a 15-stitch cut suffered when he was hit over the right eye by an errant puck in the second period, not the Kings’ third-period feeding frenzy that turned a 3-1 game into a laugher.

The Blue Jackets weren’t laughing. Actually, King seemed thankful for help in teaching an object lesson to an expansion team of players who were drafted for specific roles and got to town figuring to become scoring stars.

“We worked hard, but we didn’t work smart,” King said. “ . . . One of the positive things about the game is that we didn’t lose close. We lost by enough that it’s probably going to be a shock to us and that’s good for us right now.”

The Kings also got goals from Mathieu Schneider, Kelly Buchberger, Ziggy Palffy, Jason Blake and Steve Reinprecht in support of goalie Jamie Storr, who is 2-1 and could have played the first two periods Monday night in a rocking chair.

They finished their season-opening trip with four of a possible six points before playing their home opener Wednesday night against the St. Louis Blues at Staples Center.

As the Kings have in all three games so far, they led early. As they didn’t do in their only loss, at Buffalo, they kept up the pressure and extended the edge.

Robitaille’s third goal in as many games started things and came when Palffy’s shot was rejected back to Palffy, who backhanded the puck across the crease, behind goalie Marc Denis and onto the stick of Robitaille, who scored for a 1-0 lead at 5:19.

“He knew where I was, and he knew I would stop,” Robitaille said of the symbiosis that he seems to enjoy with Palffy.

The same combination clicked in the third period for Robitaille’s fourth goal and Palffy’s fifth assist of the season.

By then, things were out of hand. To get to that point, Schneider scored on a first-period power play and Kelly Buchberger scored in the second period on a play that King will doubtless show over and over again to illustrate what happens when defensive players stop defending.

Buchberger was as open as you can be in the slot, just in front of Denis. Not only did he have time to stop a shot by teammate Lubomir Visnovsky, Buchberger also had plenty of space to step to the side and backhand the puck into the net at 3:16.

Storr continued to coast. His lone threat until the third period came when Krzysztof Oliwa sailed into him in the second period, earning the fist of mild-mannered Craig Johnson and some penalty-box time.

The Kings’ shutout was lost when Tyler Wright scored on a wraparound during a Columbus power play at 2:19 of the third period.

The Blue Jackets grabbed, clutched and worked. Mainly they fought, particularly Oliwa, who weathered engagements with Johnson and, earlier, Ian Laperriere.

In all, the Kings had seven power-play opportunities and managed two goals, one by Schneider, the other by Palffy.

Palffy’s goal came in the third period when Rob Blake took the puck off Kevin Dineen’s stick and pushed it to Palffy, who sailed in alone to beat Denis.

Robitaille’s second goal was followed by goals by Jason Blake--assisted by Reinprecht--and by Reinprecht himself.

His first NHL point and first goal came only 67 seconds apart.

It ended a Columbus Day--government style--nightmare in Columbus.

*

HULL POWERS STARS

Brett Hull scored his 611th goal in Dallas’ 3-1 victory over Toronto. D4