Kings Limp Home After Loss

Seemingly in deep anyway against the Chicago Blackhawks, who were unbeaten in four games against them last season and are much improved this season, the Kings took to the ice Tuesday night in the United Center short-handed.

Ziggy Palffy, their leading scorer last season, had been put on the injured reserve list Monday because of back spasms, joining defenseman Aaron Miller.

Defenseman Mathieu Schneider, their leading scorer this season, had flown home to Los Angeles on Monday night to be with his expectant wife, Shannon.

And Adam Deadmarsh, their leading scorer still in Chicago, realized after a morning skate Tuesday that his back was too stiff to allow him to play.

It was no surprise, then, that the streaking Blackhawks won, 5-1, in front of 10,135, extending their unbeaten streak to eight games while handing the struggling Kings their most lopsided loss of an increasingly trying season.

The Blackhawks, who play the Kings again Thursday night at Staples Center, are 5-0-2 at home.

The Kings, though, were in no mood to celebrate the Blackhawks.

They lost five of six games on their longest trip of the season, one in overtime, and have lost four consecutive games since acquiring all-star center Jason Allison in a trade with the Boston Bruins last Wednesday.

After defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-1, on Oct. 23, they have scored five goals in four games with Allison, who has no goals and one assist with the Kings after scoring a career-high 95 points last season.

“It’s a downhill slide now,” King defenseman Mattias Norstrom said. “Today’s game, we were not even close. We’ve been in some one-goal losses where we were close but not close enough, but today is a step back. ...

“We always seem to find a way to lose. It’s getting real old. You always try to stay away from getting frustrated, but it’s easier said than done because right now it is frustrating.”

Defenseman Philippe Boucher said the Kings, who have won only three of 13 games, need to do some soul-searching.

“We need to dig deep,” he said. “I’m embarrassed. It’s not time to play the blame game. We’ve got to find it within ourselves to play better. ...

“There’s no excuse for what happened tonight. We’ve got a team that can win and we’ve got to do it. It’s early, but we’ve got to pick up our game soon.”

It might help, of course, if the Kings’ injury list would stop growing.

“It’s not often that we have this many upper-echelon guys out of the lineup,” King Coach Andy Murray said before the game.

The Kings actually led early on after getting a goal from Bryan Smolinski on a rebound 11 minutes into the game.

The Blackhawks, though, scored two goals only 23 seconds apart late in the first period to seemingly knock the wind out of the Kings.

“We can’t let that happen,” Boucher said. “There’s no way they should have scored two quick goals like that. We took ourselves out of the game.”

The rejuvenated Blackhawks, who last made the playoffs in the 1996-97 season, scored two more goals in the second period, one of which was knocked into the net by King winger Mikko Eloranta, and Murray pulled goaltender Felix Potvin in favor of Jamie Storr for the third.

“It was an opportunity, because Jamie hasn’t played much, to give him some playing time,” Murray said. “We weren’t by any means resigning.”

The outcome, however, had long been decided at that point.

Igor Korolev and Mark Bell were on their way to big nights for the Blackhawks. They each had four points, Korolev matching a career high set on April 1, 1995, against the Kings and Bell, who had played in only 13 NHL games before this season, enjoying the most productive game of his young career.

The Kings, meanwhile, were headed home after a forgettable month.

“There’s been a lot going on with our team,” winger Nelson Emerson said. “Obviously, you want more wins than three. ... Chicago’s playing great. They’ve turned it around and we’ve got to kind of play like them. They’re playing smart, playing hard. And that’s kind of where we want to be.”

Tuesday night, they weren’t close.