Kings Pick Bad Time for a Slump

This ended in another Sean Avery moment, with four misconduct penalties and a multitude of R-rated words between the Kings and Chicago Blackhawks.

This ended in a score closer than what unfolded on the ice, a 3-2 Blackhawk victory at United Center that gave the Kings consecutive losses for the first time this season.

This ended with a weary-looking coach saying the obvious.

“No one is going to ride in here on a white horse and sprinkle pixie dust and make things better,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We got to earn it ourselves.”

That gets a little harder, as the Kings’ next stop is in Ottawa to face the Senators, who have the NHL’s best record. That’s followed by games at Montreal and Toronto, also Eastern Conference powers.

“We’re playing the best team in the league Friday night, and we can’t panic,” Jeremy Roenick said. “It’s not going to come from the coaches and it’s not going to come from management, it is going to come from the guys in here and we will do it.”

For starters, that will require a better effort than was on display Wednesday.

The Blackhawks had only five power-play goals in their last 10 games. They scored three power-play goals, two by Kyle Calder, to build a 3-0 lead through two periods. That was just enough for goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who gave up goals to Eric Belanger and Pavol Demitra. Many in the crowd missed the last one, which came with 1.5 seconds left.

Focus had been diverted up ice, where the Blackhawks’ Mark Bell had tossed his gloves and stick to the ice and was trying to chase down Avery.

Avery had clobbered Bell from behind in the first period, receiving a boarding penalty. Calder made the Kings pay, sweeping in the puck for a 1-0 lead 18 minutes into the game.

Bell never caught up with Avery. Instead, the scene dwindled to harsh words. He received a misconduct penalty, as did Chicago’s Jim Vandermeer, Martin Lapointe and Adrian Aucoin.

Avery refused to comment afterward. Bell was willing.

“We have had a feud that goes back to juniors,” Bell said. “Someday there is not going to be a referee between us and I’m going to take care of it.”

With Avery taking the Fifth for the first time this season, others were left to defend him.

“Sean is a unique person,” Roenick said. “He creates a lot of energy for us and gets other teams upset. He takes some bad penalties, but we all do. So if a team is mad at him, tough.”

Murray’s reaction was more to the moment at hand.

“That’s not the story of this game,” Murray said.

The story was pretty much a rerun of recent showings. The Kings were controlled in Nashville on Thanksgiving and dominated by Detroit on Monday.

The Kings continued to struggle in almost every area Wednesday, losing for the third time in four games.

They entered the game scoreless on 21 consecutive power plays and ran the streak to 26 before Belanger scored 14:06 into the third period. The Kings have only four power-play goals in their last 43 chances.

Calder’s power-play goal was followed by one by Matt Ellison 54 seconds later. Calder scored again 9:34 into the second period.