Their ‘A’ Game Has Vanished

It’s the sort of exercise you do when you’re coaching Team Enigma.

When you’re in charge of a bunch that has won at Ottawa and Toronto, lately, but also has lost at home to to Florida, Tampa Bay, Calgary and Atlanta since Dec. 16.

When you have the highest-scoring team in the NHL for most of the season, but when you are goal-less in the last 120 minutes 44 seconds.

The reason for all of that is as simple as A-M-S, according to King Coach Andy Murray.

“ ‘A’ is people who play hard all the time,” Murray said on Friday, defining the categories as he did for coaches and players earlier in the week to do their own lists.

“ ‘M’ is people who play hard most of the time. ‘S’ is people who play hard some of the time.

“We’ve got more on the ‘S’ side than we’d like.”

It’s another way of saying that some of the players are achieving, others underachieving.

Those with an ‘S’ have dominated play in the past two games, 3-0 losses at Philadelphia on Monday and against Calgary on Thursday night at Staples Center. That’s particularly true on the offensive side, where the Kings excelled.

“Nobody can hang anything on our goaltending the last five games or so,” said Murray, referring to Jamie Storr and others who have played the position and taken the brunt of the criticism most of the season. “I don’t think you should have to figure a way to light a fire under a team. . . . Lots of guys have said they need to play better. Wanting to is another matter.”

The Kings are 2-5-1-1 in their last nine games at Staples Center, where they play 20 times in their last 33 games this season. Home-ice advantage has become a fantasy, and Murray is sympathetic to those watching.

“Our fans who come to our games are paying to see this,” he said, pointing to an “A” marked on his desk. “They expect it and they deserve it.”

Perhaps oddly, defensive play has picked up in the last two games, while the offense has disappeared. The Kings had scoring chances early Thursday night, when Luc Robitaille, Ziggy Palffy and Steve Reinprecht missed open nets or suffered bad bounces.

“We could have won that, 3-0, instead of losing it, 3-0,” Murray said.

TODAY

vs. Minnesota, 1 p.m., Fox Sports Net

* Site--Staples Center.

* Radio--KSPN (1110).

* Records--Kings 22-19-7-1, Wild 17-22-8-2.

* Record vs. Wild--1-1.

* Update--Take a look at the goaltending if you want to read the Minnesota story. Manny Fernandez and Jamie McLennan have combined for a 2.39 goals against average and a .910 save percentage, unheard of numbers for an expansion team and eighth overall in the 30-team NHL. Only Florida has scored fewer goals than Minnesota, which plays defense and waits for teams to make mistakes. Only Wes Walz has as many as 10 goals for the Wild, which defeated the Mighty Ducks, 5-0, Wednesday.

* Tickets--1-888-546-4752.