This King Loss Is Worst Yet: Palffy

The Kings lost more than a game Thursday night. They lost their top player indefinitely and, in all probability, their grip on a rapidly unraveling season.

Ziggy Palffy, the Kings’ leading scorer and a shoo-in for the All-Star game, was diagnosed with a dislocated right shoulder and will miss the rest of the season if he elects to undergo surgery, a decision that could come as soon as today.

Palffy was immediately missed Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks. The Kings were thoroughly outplayed in a 3-1 loss that extended their winless streak to 10 games, tying the second-worst winless streak in franchise history before a crowd of 16,938 at Staples Center.

Palffy was injured Wednesday when Mighty Duck defenseman Todd Simpson tugged on his stick as he started to make his way up ice about 1:30 into overtime of a 4-4 tie. Palffy’s shoulder was pulled awkwardly, and he was doubled over as he skated off the ice.

Palffy could have ended up with a breakaway on the play. Instead, there is the looming possibility of a broken season.

The Kings are now without their top three players -- Palffy, Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh. The latter two have not played since last season, Allison because of whiplash, Deadmarsh because of post-concussion syndrome.

“Nobody can do Ziggy’s job,” King forward Ian Laperriere said. “I think this year he was the most exciting player in the league.

“If everybody can do more and more and more, I think we can do his job together.”

Entering Thursday’s games, Palffy was tied for eighth in the NHL in scoring with 16 goals and 25 assists despite missing five games in November because of a bruised jaw.

The Kings went 2-3 without Palffy at the time, but the stiffer challenge would be playing without him the rest of the season, which reached its halfway point Thursday.

An unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, Palffy has been the only consistent scorer for the Kings since Allison and Deadmarsh became injured last season. Palffy led the Kings last season with 37 goals, 48 assists, 85 points and a plus-22 rating.

The Kings, who haven’t won since defeating the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 16, are tied for ninth place in the Western Conference, one spot below the playoff dividing line.

“We’ve had our fair share [of injuries] ... we’ll just move on and plug somebody else into the hole that was created by Ziggy coming out,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “Because of our efforts in the first 35, 36 games of this season, we have the opportunity to be a playoff club. We’ve stuck in there and battled and that’s exactly the way we expect to play the remaining 41 games.”

Palffy has had past problems with his right shoulder, spraining it in March 2000, also at the Arrowhead Pond, when he was checked cleanly into the boards by Duck defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski. Palffy missed 12 games that season.

As for Thursday’s game, Magnus Arvedson scored two goals and the Canucks outshot the Kings, 28-17. After two periods, the Canucks held a 21-8 edge in shots.

The Kings’ 0-3-6-1 skid is their first 10-game winless streak since the 1995-96 season. They haven’t experienced anything beyond a 10-game winless streak since a 16-game winless streak in 1981-82.

There was, in Murray’s words, a “serious open-forum discussion” in the locker room after the game about what must happen to revive once-bright playoff hopes.

“It was an embarrassing performance out there tonight,” team captain Mattias Norstrom said. “It’s about winning the micro-game within the game. That’s what we must do a lot better.”

While some might call the Kings overachievers this season -- they have now lost 312 man-games to injury -- Murray said before the game he thought they were underachieving. He has the Kings pegged for 55 points, not 43.

“It’s not good enough,” Murray said. “Personally, I would have considered us to have underachieved. Not because of a lack of effort. At times, it’s been a lack of execution.

“We’re going to have to be better. You’re going to have to have 94 points if you want to play in the playoffs.”

That lofty goal became much more difficult with the injury news of the day.