Kings Leave Lasting Impression

The ever-present billboards around the arena refer to the contents inside as “Smashville, population 17,113,” but Thursday the place was merely the site of Kings 4, Predators 1, before a subdued crowd of 10,076.

The Kings, happy to keep the fans sitting on their hands on the way to a 3-0 lead, played without defenseman Aaron Miller and lost goaltender Roman Cechmanek along the way, but left Gaylord Entertainment Center for a 10th consecutive time without a loss.

Ziggy Palffy scored twice, Luc Robitaille continued to shake off a slump with his second goal in as many games, and backup goalie Cristobal Huet stopped 29 shots in Cechmanek’s place.

The Kings are 5-1-0-2 in their last eight games and have moved four points ahead of the San Jose Sharks atop the Pacific Division.

“We seem to get a lot of adversity thrown our way,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “There was some battle in us tonight.”

In a season where the Kings have lost 204 man-games to injury, not even goaltenders are exempt from getting hurt.

Cechmanek left the game because of a bruised left hip after Nashville center David Legwand crashed into him at 11:33 of the first period. Cechmanek had dived into the upper slot to try to stop a potential breakaway by Legwand, when Legwand’s skate dug into Cechmanek’s side. Legwand did not realize Cechmanek had left the crease and was not penalized.

“The first couple seconds, I didn’t feel my leg,” said Cechmanek, who writhed on the ice for almost a minute. “I couldn’t breathe. It was tough.”

Cechmanek, dressed in a tan suit afterward, was limping slightly and said he did not know if he could play Saturday against the St. Louis Blues.

Depending on Cechmanek’s condition, Huet could be joined Saturday by a goaltender from the Kings’ minor-league affiliate in Manchester (N.H.).

Huet was flawless Thursday, with the exception of Martin Erat’s second-period power-play goal that cut the Kings’ lead to 3-1.

“Our goalie played very good,” Murray said. “Not many nights when our goalie has to be real good. He was real good.”

Robitaille continued to emerge from a month-long drought by knocking in a rebound of Michael Cammalleri’s shot to give the Kings a 2-0 lead at 12:04 of the second period. Robitaille also scored Wednesday against the Atlanta Thrashers, which ended a 12-game slide without a goal. Robitaille now has seven goals after scoring a career-low 11 last season with the Detroit Red Wings.

“Big goals,” Murray said. “That’s what he likes to do. We like it when he does it.”

That the victory came on the second night of consecutive games is no longer surprising: The Kings are 5-0 in such situations.

Perhaps more interesting was how the Kings got to Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun, who had given up only five goals in his last seven games before Thursday.

Palffy opened the scoring by knocking in a rebound of Lubomir Visnovsky’s shot from the point. Vokoun thought he had the puck secured in his stomach area, but Palffy poked it past him 8:57 into the first period.

Defenseman Jason Holland, in the lineup because Miller sat out with what the Kings said was an “upper-body injury,” gave the Kings a 3-0 lead by burying Palffy’s well-placed pass from the slot. The goal was the second in 46 career games for Holland.

Palffy concluded the scoring with an empty-net goal at 19:55.

“We are good in the back-to-back games,” Palffy said. “We regrouped and played well.”

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The game-tying goal in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to Atlanta was credited Thursday to Palffy. The goal was originally given to defenseman Joe Corvo, but NHL officials determined Corvo’s slap shot was deflected by Palffy’s knee with 4.8 seconds left in the third period.