No Need to Go Into Panic Mode

Three games into the season the Kings are still looking for their first victory, but they’re not yet ready to panic.

“It’s getting frustrating,” said center Bryan Smolinski after Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars left the Kings at 0-2-1, “but you can’t push the button. We’re getting great chances. They’re not going in right now, but eventually they are going to go in. Maybe we don’t have to press as much.”

Coach Andy Murray, who juggled his lineup for Tuesday’s game, indicated that he would stick with the same pairings tonight against the St. Louis Blues.

“If we were sitting here at 0-2-1 and we’d been awful,” he said, “we’d be asking ourselves, ‘Are we good enough? Do we need to make changes?’

“But we could say we could be 3-0.... We can’t say we’ve been bad. We’ve played one bad period. We were awful that [first] period against Minnesota [in Sunday’s 4-3 loss], but we’ve been as good or better than our opponents in all the rest.”

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The Kings took extra time this week to practice penalty shots, mostly at the request of goaltender Felix Potvin, who asked for the work, but also because a directive from the NHL indicated more might be awarded this season.

“The rule hasn’t changed,” Murray said, “but there was a notice-I didn’t get it until [Monday]-that says [whenever] anybody is fouled on a breakaway, there’s a chance it will be a penalty shot....

“That’s demanding a lot of the referees because those are game-deciding calls. That’s really putting pressure on the referees.”

Two penalty shots were awarded in Sunday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild, a first in King history. The Wild scored on its penalty shot against Potvin, but the Kings failed to convert.

Murray said Potvin wanted the work because “his timing was off.”

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Rookie defenseman Andreas Lilja has been loaned to the Kings’ American Hockey League team at Manchester, N.H., for conditioning purposes but remains on the Kings’ 23-man roster. Lilja, who has not played this season, is expected to rejoin the Kings after playing games Friday and Saturday at Norfolk, Va.

TONIGHT

at St. Louis, 4:30 PDT

Fox Sports Net

Site--Savvis Center.

Radio--KSPN (1110).

Records--Kings 0-2-1-0, Blues 0-0-2-0.

Record vs. Blues (2000-01)--1-2-1.

Update--The Blues open the home portion of their schedule after tying the Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators last week. Veteran defenseman Al MacInnis has 99 points in 104 games against the Kings.