No Blast From the Past

Throwback jerseys were worn Saturday but, unfortunately for the Kings, the final score could not be thrown back.

The Kings managed to put a lid on the St. Louis Blues’ offense but forgot about their own, tying a season low in shots and failing to score for the first time this season in a 1-0 loss in front of 17,462 Saturday afternoon at Staples Center.

Wearing the purple jerseys the franchise wore in the 1980-81 season, the Kings couldn’t conjure up any offense similar to the record-setting Triple Crown line of that era.

The Kings were held to three shots in the first period, four in the third and were limited in their scoring chances on the way to 18 shots against the team with the fewest losses in the Western Conference.

The Blues were held to a relatively harmless 20 shots, but they had the most important one, a wrist shot from center Pavol Demitra for the goal 15:22 into the first period.

“The way that I looked at the game, I thought the first 10 minutes they were a better team than we were,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “I thought the remaining 50 minutes was two similar teams that play well defensively and didn’t give either team a lot of space to operate.”

As if the Kings needed more bad injury news, center Derek Armstrong, tied for the team lead with six goals, broke a finger on his left hand near the end of the game and is listed as week to week.

The Kings, already without centers Jason Allison because of whiplash and Jozef Stumpel because of a bruised chest, probably will be without another center Wednesday when they play the Nashville Predators.

“Somebody’s going to have to step up,” right wing Ian Laperriere said. “We did it in the past game and we’re going to need to do it again. It’s a challenge for somebody.”

St. Louis was short-handed because it couldn’t play nice.

Forwards Keith Tkachuk and Doug Weight, the Blues’ Nos. 2 and 3 scorers, sat out because of egregious cross-checking penalties that earned them multigame suspensions from the NHL.

But the Blues tightened defensively, kept the puck out of their zone and doled out few opportunities for the Kings.

“They’re missing a couple of guys out of their lineup and yet they continue to prosper because they play with good structure and work very, very hard,” Murray said.

“We think the same of our team. It was two teams that play quite similar and there was not a lot of room on the ice.”

There was just enough room for Demitra as he moved from behind the King net in the first period and wristed a shot that bounced off goaltender Roman Cechmanek’s left shoulder and dropped behind Cechmanek for a goal.

King defenseman Aaron Miller was without his stick on the play because it had shattered a few seconds earlier and had to be discarded.

“I say it was a lucky goal,” Cechmanek said.

The Kings weren’t as fortunate, particularly in the area of injuries. Armstrong was injured on a fluke play, a shot by Ziggy Palffy that caught Armstrong in the hand.

If Armstrong can’t play Wednesday, a very realistic scenario, Eric Belanger or Brad Chartrand probably would be the center on the No. 1 line.