Kings lose their eighth in a row

The San Jose Sharks seemed intent on treating Kings forward Ladislav Nagy almost like a rag doll Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Forget Boxing Day. The Sharks were intent on handing out more serious punishment to Nagy.

Despite crossing that boundary, the Sharks survived ensuing discipline, league-leading road warriors that they have been this season. They killed off a five-minute major penalty in the second period and held on to defeat the plummeting Kings, 3-2, before a sellout crowd of 18,118, handing L.A. its eighth consecutive loss.

The Kings are fast approaching an ignominious statistic, closing on the club-record 11 consecutive losses they suffered at the end of the 2003-04 season.

“We’ve got to find a way to win games -- it’s definitely not fun,” said the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, using words such as frustrated and miserable to describe the atmosphere in the dressing room. “It’s getting old, losing.”

Scoring twice for the Sharks was forward Milan Michalek, who had his 11th and 12th of the season. Michalek’s first goal, at 9:02 of the first period, came off a shot from the left point, which deflected off Kings defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky past Kings goalie Jason LaBarbera.

Joe Pavelski scored in between Michalek’s two goals. Kings Coach Marc Crawford pulled LaBarbera after Pavelski’s goal made it 2-0 at 12:17 of the first, replacing him with J.S. Aubin. This was Aubin’s fourth appearance in relief this season.

“We need to get more saves,” said Crawford, noting that the Kings were getting “out-goaltended.”

The Kings goals, both on the power play, came from defensemen, Rob Blake and Visnovsky. Visnovsky’s goal came with 27 seconds remaining in the game.

As it has often unfolded during this long losing streak, the Kings squandered an ideal opportunity to tie the score on the power play, this time on the five-minute major when they trailed, 2-1.

First, Sharks defenseman Matt Carle took down Nagy in the left corner with a heavy hit at 14:38 of the second and did not draw a penalty. Less than three minutes later, stick-wielding defenseman Craig Rivet went after Nagy. His stick caught Nagy in the throat and he drew a two-minute minor for elbowing and a five-minute major, a match penalty for deliberate intent to injure.

That brought an automatic game misconduct and will merit a review from NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell, and possible suspension.

But the five-minute major resulted in no Kings goals. Certainly, that particular Kings power play could have used Michael Cammalleri, who suffered a rib injury on Saturday in Nashville and did not play.

Dustin Brown, who missed two games with an injured shoulder, returned to the Kings’ lineup and played 21 minutes 48 seconds.

Meanwhile, Cammalleri was not the only King to leave Nashville in pain. Defenseman Kevin Dallman will be out at least two weeks with a broken right foot, having suffered the injury when he blocked a shot against the Predators.

As for Cammalleri, he gamely gave it a go in the morning skate in El Segundo but left the ice after a few minutes, realizing he was in far from ideal condition.

“I’m OK. I’m really not in that much pain,” he said. “I tried it but I couldn’t really do what I needed to do on the ice.”

He was injured a little more than five minutes into the game after a brief scrap in Nashville, and someone teased him about his “enforcer” duties.

“I’ve just got to go back to scoring,” he said, smiling.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com