Kings Can’t Cope With Blues

The Kings’ once-promising season took another negative turn Saturday.

Instead of coming out playing inspired hockey against Western Conference rival St. Louis, the Kings played a flat first period and never recovered in a 2-1 loss to the Blues in front of 18,118 at Staples Center.

The defeat was the Kings’ third in a row and ninth in 11 games. They failed to take advantage of a strong game by goaltender Felix Potvin, who finished with 26 saves.

The Kings, who have not won at home since defeating Phoenix on Dec. 26, failed to generate much offense against St. Louis goalie Fred Brathwaite, who made 21 saves, including nine in the third period.

“We’re all a little bit frustrated,” Coach Andy Murray said. “A lot has happened with the team this season, from injuries to [the Kings’ current slump]. I think the biggest problem we’re having is mental.”

The Kings played better than in a 5-4 loss to Edmonton on Thursday. But not well enough to beat the Blues, who completed the season series between the teams with a 3-1 record.

Even the return of center Jason Allison, who played in his second game after sitting out eight because of a knee injury, hasn’t helped the Kings.

The confidence they had over the first two months of the season is long gone as well as their trust with one another on the ice. Every time a King makes a mistake, it seems to be magnified by a teammate getting out of position trying to cover it up.

That was evident in the first period, when Los Angeles gave the Blues plenty of room in its zone and Martin Rucinsky took advantage to score the first goal.

Winger Eric Boguniecki got the play started when he skated uncontested down the left boards before finding Rucinsky open in the high slot. With not a King in site, Rucinsky was able to get off a shot that got by Potvin to give the Blues a 1-0 lead at 9:47.

For the Kings, it was the 18th time that an opponent scored first this season. They dropped to 5-11-1-1 in those games.

St. Louis opened up a two-goal lead in the second period, thanks to another defensive breakdown by the Kings.

Moments after making a point-blank save on power forward Keith Tkachuk, Potvin found himself helpless on a two-on-one breakaway by Cory Stillman and Scott Mellanby. With defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky being the only King defender back, Stillman scored easily at 14:47 to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead.

The Kings, who were outshot, 21-12, in the first two periods, came to life in the third period, sparked by Ziggy Palffy’s first goal in seven games.

Allison, who moved around a lot better in the third period than he did in the first, picked up an assist with a nice lead pass to Visnovsky, who fed Palffy skating through the slot.

Palffy scored his team-leading 13th goal with a backhand shot from outside the right post, which beat Brathwaite at 11:19.

But that would be the only scoring for the Kings.

“We didn’t play a good first period but after that, we were much better,” Potvin said. “But it’s like we don’t want to make mistakes and that’s when you make mistakes.

“That’s a tough way to be playing. Everyone just needs to relax a little bit.”

Said defenseman Jaroslav Modry: “We want to put 60 minutes together and be successful at this level. But every other team keeps winning and we’re losing a little bit of ground. We have to start bringing our game early. We have to start playing like it’s a playoff game -- Game 7 -- we just have to lay it on the line and give it everything we got.”