Kings at a Crossroads

The Kings had urgency laid out for them in August, like new clothes the night before the first day of school.

“We’ve waited five years for this day,” Kings’ CEO Tim Leiweke said at the time, referring to the team’s ability to function financially under the NHL’s new collective-bargaining agreement that leveled the ice.

Now, six months later, the Kings’ 22-game sprint to the end of the regular season could be followed by told-you-so celebrations or harsh what-the-heck-happened ramifications.

Coach Andy Murray’s contract is up at the end of the season. General Manager Dave Taylor has one year left on his contract. Leiweke, though, veered away from questions about the future of either one.

“I’m an optimist and what we’re focused on right now is doing everything humanly possible to help the team,” Leiweke said. “We are much more focused on the positive rather than the negative. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure we’re sitting here in April talking about the playoffs.

“That is what I expect,” he said, “and we expect that out of everyone in the organization.”

The Kings take that into the post-Olympic schedule -- and a ready-to-wear mantra that seems fresh from the spin cycle: “At the beginning of the season, if you would have told us we would be in a playoff spot with 69 points, we would have taken that,” Murray said on more than one occasion in the last week.

But there are fine-print details that take a little luster off that big-picture statement.

* On Jan. 3, the Kings led the Pacific Division by four points, a position partially buoyed by having played more games than other teams. They now trail the first-place Dallas Stars by 10 points.

* In early December, the Kings were among the elite in the Western Conference. They now sit, for the moment, in seventh place, with the Edmonton Oilers, Mighty Ducks, San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild in hot pursuit.

* Injuries have plagued the Kings all season, and the epidemic continues.

Leading scorer Pavol Demitra’s status remains cloudy after he was hit by a puck during the Olympics; he has a broken nose and bleeding behind his right eye. At the same time, Alexander Frolov -- their fourth-leading scorer -- suffered a separated shoulder during the Olympics.

* Two key players have come up short of expectations. Jeremy Roenick has not been close to the player he was, because of injuries and other issues. And goaltender Mathieu Garon seemed to wear down in January, giving up four or more goals in nine of his last 13 starts.

* The Kings rank 26th on the power play and 29th in penalty killing. Only Chicago averages more penalty minutes a game.

“We realize our penalty killing and power play and save percentage have to be better, and we have to take fewer penalties,” Murray said. “How do we do that? We have to work hard and trust people.”

The Kings have one advantage coming back from the Olympic break -- they are not chasing anyone for a playoff spot. It’s theirs to lose. They continue their quest tonight at Staples Center against the Minnesota Wild.

“The last 22 games, we can decide our own fate,” Murray said.

The Kings hope they carved out some instant karma by winning the last two games before the break. That ended a seven-game losing streak and a freefall in the Western Conference. It also brought some peace of mind.

“We weren’t sitting around the whole break thinking about a losing streak,” King left wing Luc Robitaille said. “We just need to keep the momentum going.”

That will require better play in key areas.

Garon could top that list. He followed a brilliant December that solidified the hold on a playoff spot with a difficult January that weakened the grasp. The Kings lost 13 of 17 games heading into the break.

Asked about his assessment of the team, Leiweke said, “That depends on which team you’re grading, the team that won the last two games or the team that played the previous 10 games. I reserve judgment on this team until the end of the season. We hope and believe that this team should be a playoff team. Everyone knows that, Dave, Andy, the players. Hopefully we made the right decision on players and we are going to add something.”

That puts the pressure on Taylor to make a deal to bolster a team that has had a habit of collapsing at the end.

In the 2003-04 season, the Kings lost their last 11 games -- and a playoff spot. In 2002-03, they tumbled from the race even faster, winning only two of 11 games at the start of March.

“We battled all those injuries last season and it wore us down,” said defenseman Mattias Norstrom, who is coming back from an injury himself. “At the end, we couldn’t buy a win.”

Taylor may need to spend a little for reinforcements to prevent a repeat, although making a deal before the March 9 trading deadline may be difficult.

‘I think a lot of teams are taking a wait-and-see approach because a lot teams are still in the playoff race,” he said. “We would like to upgrade our team and we certainly have been talking to a lot of people.... The trade deadline being moved up from 25 days to the end of the season to 40 days means it’s not as clear-cut as to which teams are sellers and which teams are buyers.”

The Kings are about $4 million under the salary cap, leaving room for a substantial move, whether it is an offense-skilled center, some help on defense or someone to shore up the goaltending.

The organization has hoarded top draft picks, after years of giveaways under previous ownerships. That seems to leave Taylor with enough shiny baubles -- mostly young forwards -- to dangle in front of other teams.

“We got a handful of top young players we won’t talk about, but we have others we will [talk about] that we think teams will have an interest in,” Taylor said. “We are open to anything and we have the ability to improve ourselves.”

The message seems clear.

Said Leiweke: “I think the expectation in this organization is we’re going to win.”