Kings Come Up a Little Short

No Palffy, no Stumpel, no Armstrong, no Laperriere, no Allison, no Deadmarsh.

No victory.

The Kings, playing without six of the 12 forwards they penciled in to start the season, made it interesting Thursday against the Phoenix Coyotes but ultimately fell, 6-4, before 13,751 at America West Arena.

Phoenix winger Ladislav Nagy had three goals, one in each period, a study in symmetry the injury-depleted Kings couldn’t quite match with a roster that looked a little like their minor-league affiliate in Manchester, N.H.

As they have done most of the season, the Kings had the edge in shots, 43-23, but there were too many giveaways and too many mental lapses to prevent the Coyotes from winning.

“Totally ridiculous loss on our part,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “The chances we gave them we presented on a platter. With the exception of three players, we had everyone on board tonight, but three players cost our team a win. One only has to look at the plus-minus to know who we’re talking about here.”

The defensive pairing of Jaroslav Modry and Lubomir Visnovsky suffered a rough outing -- Modry had a minus-four rating, Visnovsky was minus-three. Rookie winger Dustin Brown also finished minus-three and goaltender Roman Cechmanek has a poor .773 save percentage.

“We made a lot of unforced errors that led to goals,” defenseman Aaron Miller said. “We’ve got a lot of guys out. Goals are a little bit tough to come by. We can’t give up four goals [Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils] and six tonight.”

The Kings’ loss created a Pacific Division logjam. All five teams in the division are within three points -- the Dallas Stars are in front with 23 points, the Kings are in a three-way tie for second with 22 points, and the Coyotes are fifth with 20.

Injuries, one of the season’s central themes for the Kings, again took their toll. Center Ian Laperriere, one of the Kings’ sturdiest players in recent seasons, sat out because of a strained neck he sustained Nov. 19 against the Nashville Predators.

Laperriere, who averaged 78 games in each of the last four seasons, took part in the Thursday morning skate but was unable to play. He will be evaluated today and said he will not play Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Perhaps the one memory the Kings will take from the game was the 700th assist for Luc Robitaille, who set up Michael Cammalleri 1:01 into the second period to tie the score at 2-2.

Robitaille was unaware he had reached the 700-assist mark -- “What milestone? It doesn’t even matter, but thanks for letting me know,” he said.

He did, however, know why the Kings lost. “It seemed like every time we made a mistake it was a major breakdown and they scored,” he said.

Jon Sim’s wrist shot put the Kings ahead, 3-2, 45 seconds after Cammalleri’s goal, but the lead was short-lived.

Nagy scored his second goal when he was left alone in the slot and ripped a shot off Cechmanek’s glove.

Later, Rodoslav Suchy’s shot caromed off the skate of Shane Doan and past Cechmanek to give the Coyotes the lead for good at 16:55 of the second period.

“I’ve walked in [to the locker room] and talked about great wins we’ve had this season,” Murray said. “This is as tough and ridiculous a loss as we’ve had.”