Lost Season Ends in Loss

After all the man-games lost to injury had been tabulated one final time in the shadow of a season gone wrong, the Kings showed how parting could be such sweet symmetry.

The Kings’ season ended Sunday much the same way it opened Oct. 9, with an unforgettable loss that came unforgivably late in the game, symptomatic of a team that held plenty of promise but faded badly at the end.

The San Jose Sharks scored twice in the final 20 seconds of the third period and scored again in overtime for a 4-3 victory before 17,496 at HP Pavilion that placed an even more dismal stamp on the Kings’ season, if that’s possible. The Kings set a team record with their 11th consecutive loss, one of many negative records that won’t garner much time in the Kings’ year-in-review highlight video.

The Kings suffered a midseason 14-game winless streak that was the third longest in the team’s 37 seasons. They also sustained enough injuries to set an unofficial NHL record with 629 man-games lost to injury, a stat unrecognized by the league but daunting nonetheless.

In spite of it all, the Kings remained in the playoff hunt until the final two weeks, winning enough games against inferior teams and extracting enough ties during their 33-day winless streak to stay ahead of the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators most of the way.

But the Kings fell from seventh to their final resting place of 11th after they incorporated a slew of players last month that cost them the character and chemistry of a grind-it-out team.

Anson Carter had one assist in 15 games after being acquired March 8 from the Washington Capitals. Martin Straka returned from surgery on both knees to record three assists in 14 games. Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky wasn’t as big of a factor after returning from a pinched nerve in his shoulder and Aaron Miller played like he never fully healed after coming back from a similar injury in his neck area.

“It was certainly strange [what happened],” said right wing Trent Klatt, the only King to play all 82 games. “We battled through a lot of adversity through the season and then ran out of gas. The last couple of weeks have been very hard on everybody. It hasn’t been an easy thing to digest.”

The Kings have many choices to make in what will almost certainly be a turbulent off-season for NHL teams because of the mid-September expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.

With financial certainty up in the air until a new CBA is formulated, the Kings have only a few givens. Erratic goaltender Roman Cechmanek and the underperforming Straka have one more year on their contracts, as does up-and-coming left wing Alexander Frolov. Klatt and All-Star defenseman Mattias Norstrom each have two more years on their contracts. Miller, who has missed 80 games the last two seasons, has three more years on his deal.

The Kings’ biggest chore is to re-sign right wing Ziggy Palffy before he becomes an unrestricted free agent July 1. Palffy made $7 million this season and earned every dollar of it with 41 points in 35 games before sustaining a season-ending dislocation in his right shoulder.

Palffy, who represented the speed factor the Kings lacked against other teams, is expected to recover fully from the shoulder injury by mid-July, but he will not be offered as much as he made this season, a sign more than anything else of the changing contract landscape across the NHL.

The Kings must also figure out what to do with left wing Luc Robitaille, an unrestricted free agent who led the team in scoring and became the highest-scoring left wing in NHL history with an assist March 22 against the Edmonton Oilers.

Although he turned 38 in February, Robitaille showed he could still score and finished with 22 goals and 51 points. Even if the Kings re-sign him, Robitaille might play in Europe or retire if the NHL lockout becomes reality.

“I want to come back, it’s just there’s certain situations I can’t control,” said Robitaille, who has 1,370 career points. “I know I have one more good year in me. I don’t think it will be a problem with the Kings, but there’s the [problem] with the labor agreement.”

Other unrestricted free agents include defenseman Jaroslav Modry, who struggled toward the end, oft-injured center Jozef Stumpel, well-rounded defenseman Nathan Dempsey and emotional checking-line sparkplug Ian Laperriere.

“I think there’s a lot of uncertainty [league-wide] but we’re going to move forward with business as usual,” King General Manager Dave Taylor said. “We’re going to sign our players, make qualifying offers in June and talk to free agents. If there are deals that make sense, we’ll do it. We have to prepare for the start of the season and hopefully both sides can work it out.”

The Kings have more financial control, but still some looming questions, over a handful of restricted free agents.

The Kings plan to give qualifying offers to Visnovsky and defenseman Joe Corvo, and forwards Sean Avery, Eric Belanger and Jeff Cowan, but they will think twice about making an offer to Carter, a major disappointment after being acquired from the Capitals. The Kings would have to make Carter a one-year qualifying offer of $2.8 million to retain his rights.

Forwards Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh probably will not be given qualifying offers. Allison, who made $8 million this season, has been out since January 2003 because of whiplash. Deadmarsh, who made $3 million, has been out since December 2002 because of post-concussion syndrome.

“They’re both still having symptoms,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be real tough to qualify them.”

The Kings are hoping to improve team speed and would like to add a power forward, although there are few, if any, significant ones available via free agency.

There are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers at this point, particularly in the wake of Sunday’s loss.

Brad Stuart scored with 20 seconds left and again with 2.3 seconds left in the third period to force overtime, bringing to mind the Kings’ season-opener against the Detroit Red Wings, where Steve Yzerman scored the winner with 1.7 seconds left in the third period.

Vincent Damphousse scored 3:50 into overtime to finish the Kings’ season.

“An ugly way to end the game,” Klatt said, “and an ugly way to end the season.”