Kings Talk, but Still Don’t Act

They said they would play with desperation. They said they wouldn’t quit. They talked about not falling behind early.

But at this point in the Kings’ ever-worsening slide, it’s only talk.

“We’re obviously at the show-me, don’t-tell-me stage,” Coach Andy Murray said before Tuesday night’s 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks in front of 17,496 at HP Pavilion.

“Don’t tell me you’re desperate, show me.”

For the injury-riddled Kings, however, passionate play and hard work might not be enough. And winning consistently, it seems, might be too much to ask.

They’ve won only four of 19 games since Dec. 19 after losing to the Sharks on consecutive nights in a home-and-home series. They’ve scored one goal or fewer 11 times and been shut out four times. They’ve been outscored, 63-34.

Monday’s 3-0 loss at Staples Center dropped them into last place in the Pacific Division, which really doesn’t mean much -- conceivably, they could make the playoffs from that position -- but obviously it was disconcerting.

Of more immediate concern was doubt. Had it crept into the dressing room? Was there a feeling among the Kings that, after making strong playoff runs the last two seasons, they might not be able to rally this time?

“Not at all,” defenseman Mattias Norstrom said. “That’s the good thing about sports. You keep plugging away [and] you never know what’s going to happen. We have a good feeling in the room, guys are positive. But we’ve also got to have a sense of urgency; we can’t just keep saying it.

“But there is absolutely no quitting in this room. We have way too many games left in the season for anyone to even think about that.”

Of course, the Sharks were desperate too. Before Monday, they were last in the Pacific Division. And while the Kings had six regulars sidelined after defenseman Mathieu Schneider was added to the injury list Tuesday because of a bruised foot, the Sharks were at full strength in the season debut of defenseman Kyle McLaren, acquired last week in a trade with the Boston Bruins.

The Kings had hoped to avoid a repeat of Monday night’s game, when the Sharks came out aggressively and scored two goals in the first 10 minutes.

“We’re professional athletes, professional players, but at this point we seem to be a little bit fragile when that first goal is against us,” Murray said. “We have to work through that.”

They didn’t have to this time, Bryan Smolinski giving them the lead when he bulled his way past Shark goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to poke a trickling rebound into the net 2:07 into the game.

But then the Sharks scored three goals in less than nine minutes, resulting in the benching of goaltender Felix Potvin and putting the Kings in the same situation they’d faced the night before: two goals down with two periods to play.

The first two were power-play goals, Owen Nolan scoring on a rebound at 4:43 with King defenseman Dmitry Yushkevish in the penalty box for interference and Teemu Selanne scoring on a pretty shot from the left faceoff circle at 9:46 with King rookie Michael Cammalleri off for tripping.

At 13:04, Patrick Marleau ripped a shot through traffic and past Potvin from the right point. That was it for Potvin, who was pulled for Jamie Storr.