It’s Quite a Downer for the Kings

The Kings held a semi-private affair Thursday night -- their game against Dallas.

On the ice, the Kings were taken down, 4-1 by the Stars, a team they beat six times in eight games last season.

In the dressing room, they were taken to task by a loud and long tongue lashing from Coach Marc Crawford, as it took a village to fashion such a loss.

And at the box office, the organization seemed to be taking a beating, with an announced crowd of 14,167 at Staples Center, the smallest crowd to see a regular-season game since Feb. 1, 2001.

This came on the heels of Tuesday’s game, which had an announced crowd of only 14,394 against the New York Islanders. The Kings sold out 28 games last season, including five of their first seven coming out of the lockout.

What those not in attendance Thursday missed was the early stages of a possible goaltender controversy.

Dan Cloutier, acquired from the Vancouver Canucks during the summer and given a two-year, $6.2-million contract extension, gave up a goal 19 seconds into the game and three goals on the Stars’ first 12 shots.

After Brenden Morrow slipped the puck between Cloutier and the left post 1 minute 55 seconds into the second period, Kings fans demonstrated that even a small crowd could boo loudly. The frustration was no doubt fueled in part by the fact that Mathieu Garon, last season’s starter, stopped 35 of 36 shots in his only start, a 4-1 victory over the lowly St. Louis Blues.

But Crawford was handing out blame in bundles.

“That was a divisional game and we have to be ready to play when the puck is dropped,” Crawford said. “We got to climb that mountain and try to knock the guy off the top. Tonight, we got sand kicked in our face.”

The Kings will get another crack at the Stars on Saturday. Garon will be in net but whether more fans will be in seats remains to be seen.

Shawn Hunter, the Kings’ president of business operations, said the team had 89% renewal on season-ticket packages, but that the single-game sales were lagging. The Kings raised season-ticket prices an average of 7.5%.

Hunter said the Kings showed a profit last season for the first time since Philip Anschutz, the team’s occasionally seen owner, purchased the team in October 1995.

“We have a lot of games in October, and there are people who probably decided to come to the Saturday game,” Hunter said, but he added, “We haven’t made the playoffs in three seasons and we have new management. There are people who are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

“We’re not panicking. If our base had gone down that would be one thing. The bottom line is this team needs to win.”

The Kings dropped below that bottom line Thursday.

The best for Cloutier was that he received little defense on the Stars’ first two goals.

Kings players left Antti Miettinen alone and close enough to Cloutier to shake hands. He buried a one-timer for a 1-0 Stars’ lead. Another defensive lapse again betrayed Cloutier 15 minutes into the game. He managed to stop a long shot by Eric Lindros, but no one picked up a charging Mike Modano, who swept a juicy rebound into an open net for a 2-0 lead.

“We got to score goals, we have to be responsible, we have to work harder,” center Craig Conroy said. “We can’t let games like that happen.”

chris.foster@latimes.com