Kings’ Effort Falls Down at End of Four-Game Trip

Leave the history to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

That’s the past, and the Kings were more concerned about the future Monday night after giving up power-play goals to Simon Gagne and Mark Recchi and an empty-netter in a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers that ended a four-game trip.

The empty-netter, credited to Luke Richardson, was actually scored by the Kings’ Ziggy Palffy, who backhanded a pass that sailed past everybody and into the goal with 8.2 seconds to play with most of the announced 19,578 still in First Union Arena to voice approval.

The Kings were 3-1 on their four-game trip, winning at Ottawa, Toronto and Carolina.

They have never swept a four-game trip.

“We had an opportunity to get eight points on this trip . . . and we didn’t get the job done in penalty killing again,” Coach Andy Murray said.

“They were getting to loose pucks. And the story of the game was special teams.”

It’s a fairy tale for the Flyers, a horror story for the Kings, who had five power plays totaling 9:14, but got only a handful of shots all night with a man advantage.

“We were hoping that the time comes when special teamwork will win us games,” said Philadelphia Coach Bill Barber. “Tonight was a prime example.”

The Kings’ poor penalty-killing play is something that must be remedied in the season’s final 34 games if they want to earn a playoff spot.

That was the emphasis as the Kings left town for Southern California, where they play their next eight games.

“We have to start winning home games,” said Palffy.

“We have given up a lot of home games. The world is not ending after this game.”

Added Luc Robitaille of the upcoming home stand: “It’s the season for us. It’s that important.”

The Kings finished the trip with only a slight improvement over their lot of a week ago, when they were three points behind eighth-place Edmonton.

They now trail the Oilers by two points.

Ground remains to be gained in the season’s final 2 1/2 months, and “it’s harder being on the outside, looking in,” Rob Blake said.

“You tend to look at the teams above you instead of worrying about the team you’re playing and yourselves.”

It’s something that Murray is dealing with by pointing to the schedule.

“We may not be in a playoff position right now, but we have closed the gap on every other team that is ahead of us in the conference,” he said.

“We are masters of our own destiny. If we are deserving, we will be playing playoff hockey at the end of this season.”

If they play as they did on Monday night, their season will end at Calgary on April 7.

“I thought we got outworked tonight, plain and simple,” Blake said.

It was particularly true in the opening period, when the Kings had only five shots and fell behind on Gagne’s goal at 18:38.

Flyer goalie Roman Cechmanek, who turned in his fourth shutout of this, his first NHL season.

“For me it was a hard start,” he said of the long periods of idleness while the Kings dithered in their own end of the ice.

A Flyer line of Jody Hull, Kent Manderville and Paul Ranheim was assigned the Kings’ high-scoring unit of Palffy (fourth in the league in points), Robitaille (eighth) and Jozef Stumpel.

The three were held without a shot in the opening period and limited to only one shot--by Robitaille--in the second before they could get anything going in the final period.

“Bah,” Palffy scoffed at the notion that he, Stumpel and Robitaille were held in check by the Manderville line.

“We were awful.”

The second Flyer goal came when Keith Primeau won a puck behind the King net and fired it to Recchi in front at 13:29.

From there, the Kings got things going, but could not dent Cechmanek, who is 11-2-3 over his last 16 decisions.

“I don’t think we played well enough to win the hockey game tonight,” Murray said.

“Cechmanek is an important part of their team, and there is a reason he is on the All-Star team.”

And there is a reason the Kings are still trying to crash the Western Conference playoff party.

From here on, the points to be had are from the teams they need to beat to earn an invitation.

And if they don’t get in, they have no one to blame but themselves.