Murray Is the One Taking All the Shots

The Kings continue to go from bad to worse, a once-intriguing team that is now interesting only because it might set a team record for consecutive losses.

The Kings dropped their ninth consecutive game, 3-0 to the San Jose Sharks, and continued to show none of the grit that had them fighting for a playoff spot two long weeks ago.

The Sharks scored twice within a 29-second span midway through the second period and hand-delivered the Kings their second-longest losing streak in 37 seasons before an unforgiving crowd of 18,118 Wednesday at Staples Center.

Coach Andy Murray has held his tongue throughout the losing streak, but he seared the Kings on Wednesday for their lack of effort.

“I said last year at the end of our season that I wasn’t real happy with our season-ending tape that we send out to our season-ticket holders because in that tape we did a lot of apologizing,” Murray said. “You see a game like tonight and you’ve got a lot of apologizing to do.

“I don’t care whether it’s an exhibition game, the first game of the year, the last game of the year, whether we’re playing to get into the Stanley Cup or we’re playing to win it, whatever the circumstances are, you’ve got to try. That’s the responsibility that comes with putting on that jersey. To play like we played tonight, it’s all about apologizing.”

The Kings had five shots in the first period, four in the second period and fell to 0-4-1 this season against the Sharks, who clinched the No. 2 seeding in the West. After getting shut out four times in their first 75 games, the Kings have been blanked twice in their last five.

“It’s obviously my responsibility,” Murray said. “I’m the head coach of the team. It’s my job to get them to play every night. Tonight was awful. I haven’t felt like I’ve felt tonight my whole coaching career.”

The Kings have not won since a 5-1 victory March 14 against the Mighty Ducks. If the Kings lose Friday against the Calgary Flames, they will tie the 10-game losing streak that took place toward the end of the 1983-84 season. The season finale is Sunday at San Jose.

The Kings were eighth in the Western Conference as of March 16, but they’re now only one point ahead of the 11th-place Minnesota Wild. Not quite first to worst but certainly not the way the Kings expected to end the season.

Luc Robitaille, who became the highest-scoring left wing in league history last week, was honored before the game, the only memorable part of the Kings’ night.

“When you are a kid and you dream of playing in the NHL, if somebody were to say to you [that] you are going to play the last three games with the L.A. Kings, even though they are not in the playoffs, you would play all out, you would give everything you have,” Robitaille said. “I’m not sure we did that tonight.”

The Kings were looking at a 1-0 deficit when Alexander Korolyuk turned King defenseman Jaroslav Modry inside-out above the circles and fired a shot at Roman Cechmanek. The initial shot was stopped by Cechmanek, but Alyn McCauley was there on the other side for an easy tap-in at 10:10 of the second period.

Fewer than 30 seconds later, Brad Stuart found Niko Dimitrakos behind the King defense for a breakaway. Cechmanek got a piece of Dimitrakos’ shot with his glove, but the puck trickled under Cechmanek for a 2-0 lead.

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Centers Derek Armstrong (strained right triceps) and Jozef Stumpel (bruised left shoulder) are not expected to play the Kings’ final two games Alexander Frolov, who leads the Kings with 24 goals, did not play because of a sore ankle. He has not skated since Monday.