Things can change so quickly for Kings and Ducks

Welcome to the Western Conference, where Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller’s lightheadedness has his entire team feeling dizzy and the Kings’ 11-game point streak tied a franchise record but didn’t solidify their hold on a playoff spot.

How quickly things have changed in this frantic season. Both occupied playoff spots last week, but the Kings now are clinging to eighth place and the Ducks are ninth as they prepare to face off Wednesday at the Honda Center for the 99th time in their history.

After last Tuesday’s games the Ducks stood a season-best fourth in the West, riding a four-game winning streak and a 6-1 surge.

Then Hiller’s mysterious ailment returned, triggering a three-game losing streak. The cause isn’t mysterious: Without Hiller, who’s having a Vezina trophy-caliber season, the Ducks yielded 21 goals in those game. Curtis McElhinney will start Wednesday to open a season-long, seven-game homestand.

“The only way that you ever turn things around is you focus on the process, not the result,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said Tuesday, “because the results are always magnified and they are very, very important at this time, but if you consistently just look at the results then you get caught up in that. We have to focus on the process of how we’re playing and the things within it that give us a chance.”

The Kings were enjoying an 8-0-2 surge that included a 5-0-2 record in a stretch of 10 straight road games. They extended those streaks by losing to the New York Rangers in a shootout but then lost to the New York Islanders in regulation.

Earning one point out of four wouldn’t normally be cause for concern but it dropped them out of the top eight until Dallas lost Tuesday and the Kings moved up on a tiebreaker. For a team whose season has been a chain of extreme streaks, it’s an uh-oh moment.

“You’ve got to learn from your mistakes. We’ve had a couple tough lessons so far this year with our losing streaks,” center Jarret Stoll said. “It can get pretty bad pretty quick in this league because everybody is good. Everyone is winning. Especially this time of year everybody’s games are important. Teams are playing well, so you’ve just got to be consistent.”

Consistent everywhere, it seems, but in their lineup.

Coach Terry Murray said Tuesday he will sit defenseman Alec Martinez in favor of Davis Drewiske, a healthy scratch since Jan. 6. Murray said Martinez “is just playing a little bit too light. Not assertive enough.”

Murray also altered his top three lines to accommodate the return of left wing Marco Sturm from a bout of tendinitis. Sturm will skate alongside Anze Kopitar and Wayne Simmonds, with a second line of Ryan Smyth, Stoll, and Dustin Brown, and a third line of Brad Richardson, Michal Handzus and Justin Williams. Murray said he hadn’t decided on his fourth line.

Stoll’s line was the Kings’ steadiest all season, but Murray said the trio was “below average throughout the road trip,” especially defensively. Williams and Brown share the team goal-scoring lead with 20 each.

Sturm was acquired to fill a gaping hole on the top line, an unrealistic expectation after he underwent major surgery on his right knee last May. Bouncing from one line to another he had four goals and eight points in 15 games before retrenching to strengthen his knee and his confidence.

Asked if his knee and his head are 100%, he smiled. “It’s a tough question, but we’ll find out in the next few games here,” said Sturm, who underwent surgery on his left knee early in 2009. “I did it before and I think there’s no reason I can’t get the right mind-set and forget about everything what’s happened in the past.”

He said his mission will be to use his speed to create space for his linemates, notably Kopitar. The Slovenian center can use the help: He has one goal in his last 15 games and two in his past 25.

Kopitar said his teammates were refreshed after returning from New York and going through two days of practice before their last road contest for a while.

“It’s going to be an intense game and I don’t think we’re going to need any extra motivation for that game,” he said.

They shouldn’t. Neither should the Ducks.

“You’ve got to get yourself ready individually. Everybody should be mature enough, professional enough to be ready,” Stoll said. “If we’re not, then we don’t deserve it. That’s the same with any team.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

twitter.com/helenenothelen