Palffy Thinks Long Term

Ziggy Palffy, suffering from back spasms, wanted to play Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes but decided against it after skating in the pregame warmups at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.

“It just didn’t feel good, the back, and I just don’t want to push it,” the winger said. “I hope it’s just going to be this game and come back next game. If I’m going to push hard, it can be a long time [out of the lineup].”

Palffy said the slumping Kings should not be discouraged.

“It’s just the beginning,” he said. “We have to come back on our game. I think guys played well today. I don’t think they played a bad game. I don’t think this is a problem right now. We have a lot of games left.”

It was nice to hear, but it didn’t make Mathieu Schneider feel better when a fan who had been watching the game from Vermont called him after Friday night’s 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers and told him that he hadn’t misfired on an open-net shot in the final minute, as he had thought.

“My daddy called me and said [goaltender Roberto Luongo] got a piece of it,” said Schneider, who later saw a replay confirming that Luongo had made a lunging stop, deflecting the screaming puck over the net with his glove.

“It’s little consolation,” Schneider said before Sunday’s game. “I still should have put it in. It’s one of those things that’s all or nothing.”

General Manager Dave Taylor has remade the roster in the last eight months with the additions of Jason Allison, Adam Deadmarsh, Felix Potvin, Aaron Miller and Steve Heinze, but he might not be finished.

“We’re not working on anything right now,” Taylor said, “but we’re always looking to tinker with the lineup if we can improve it. We’ve gotten younger and we’ve gotten grittier, and I think we’ve helped with our leadership in the room.”

Randy Robitaille, recalled from the minors, made it to Raleigh on Saturday night from Manchester, N.H., but his sticks did not. They arrived Sunday morning and had to be rushed from the airport by one of the Hurricanes’ equipment handlers.

Robitaille, who had seven goals and three assists in six games at Manchester, played almost 15 minutes but had no shots on goal.