Sabres Put the Hurt on Kings

The Kings lost Thursday night, which is to be expected in an 82-game season. But how they played was purely unexpected, if not unsettling.

The Buffalo Sabres came into Staples Center with both the lowest-rated offense and defense in the NHL, but they scored any which way -- short-handed, even strength, power play -- and stopped the Kings on all but one shot in a 5-1 victory before a hushed crowd of 15,752.

The Kings were thrown for a loss in many ways, regressing after Tuesday’s 4-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers with a futile follow-up that lacked grit and effort.

The penalty kill continued to crush the Kings as Buffalo scored two power-play goals in the first period.

The King power play, a source of strength this season, was non-existent, finishing 0 for 7.

Right wing Ziggy Palffy and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky weren’t around for the end because they were injured. Palffy left with a strained neck and Visnovsky with a strained lower back.

They didn’t miss much.

“It looked bad [tonight],” King defenseman Jaroslav Modry said. “We can’t take anybody easy out there.”

The Kings showed an inexplicable pattern for the second time in a young season, offering up a confounding loss after a well-deserved victory.

Last week, a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators was matched by a 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins in which the Kings allowed four consecutive goals. Any momentum from the rout of Philadelphia was nowhere to be seen against the Sabres.

“It’s a great thing when we can rise to certain levels, but it’s disappointing we can drop to levels we did against Boston and tonight,” forward Trent Klatt said. “There needs to be a happy medium.”

The Kings, playing without seven injured players, lost two more.

Palffy, tied for the NHL’s scoring lead with 12 points, was bowled over by Adam Mair in the first period on a hit near the Buffalo blue line that was deemed fair by both teams’ coaches.

Visnovsky, whose seven points were the most among NHL defensemen before Thursday, left in the second period after getting run over by Buffalo winger Jason Botterill.

Both players will be reevaluated today.

The Sabres did not score in their first two games and were crushed Monday by the Vancouver Canucks, 6-1, but they were satisfied with the hard-hitting end product against the Kings.

“Sometimes you can lean on too much skill and too much fancy when the league isn’t that way,” Buffalo Coach Lindy Ruff said.

The Sabres were averaging an NHL-low 1.33 goals per game with an offense so minuscule that goalie Martin Biron’s one assist was tied for sixth in team scoring before Thursday.

Their defense wasn’t much to celebrate, either, allowing an NHL-worst 3.5 goals per game. Sixteen of the Sabres’ 21 players came into the game with negative plus-minus ratings, and winger Miroslav Satan was tied for the NHL’s worst plus-minus rating at minus-7.

But the King penalty kill, the worst in the league statistically, allowed power-play goals by Satan and Taylor Pyatt in the first period.

The Sabres had second-period goals from Chris Taylor and Curtis Brown, who scored on a short-handed breakaway at 19:00 to ensure the rout.

The Kings’ only goal came 1:15 into the third period on a behind-the-net pass from Luc Robitaille to Derek Armstrong in front.

“We are simply not a team that if we’re not going all out can have a lot of success,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “Some of our players have to realize that we’re good when we play hard as a team.”