Kings’ Loss Is Hard to Stomach

The Kings are nearly whole again.

Which is not to say they are without holes.

With the return to the lineup Saturday night of Adam Deadmarsh and Ian Laperriere, following the Thursday night return of Jason Allison, only the absence of injured defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky kept the Kings from playing at full strength for the first time this season.

But that didn’t stop them from absorbing a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who not only had been reeling -- three consecutive losses, six in seven games -- but had played Friday night, losing to the Sharks, 3-2, at San Jose.

Derrick Walser’s power-play goal with 17 minutes to play was the winner in front of a capacity crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center, the Blue Jackets taking advantage of a hooking penalty against Steve Heinze.

And it didn’t sit well.

“I’m disgusted with this effort tonight,” King captain Mattias Norstrom said. “As a group, we’ve got to realize that playing hockey the way we did tonight, the way we did against Nashville [in a 3-2 loss to the Predators on Thursday night], is not acceptable for us as players if we have any kind of pride.

“This has got to stop. This is the way a losing team plays, and we know that we’re a way better team than this.”

Through a rash of injuries to key players and a demanding road schedule, the Kings have mostly run in place through the season’s first two months.

Since a 3-0 start, they’re 7-9-4-3 and have been outscored, 66-59.

“We can’t play .500 hockey the rest of the way and expect to be in the playoffs,” Coach Andy Murray said last week. “It won’t happen.”

That was before they lost to the Predators, an especially galling defeat in that it came at home against the worst team in the Western Conference in Allison’s unexpectedly early return from a knee injury.

But as bad as that was, this one might have been worse.

“At some points, it was embarrassing the way we played,” Laperriere said. “We’ve got to realize we’re not going to make the playoffs playing like that.”

The Blue Jackets had won only two of their last 19 road games.

The Kings, 5-1 losers to the Blue Jackets on Oct. 27 at Columbus, Ohio, matched their goal total from that game only 2 minutes 51 seconds into this one. In the Blue Jacket zone, Allison won a faceoff in the left circle, chased down the puck and slid a pass to Ziggy Palffy charging down the middle.

From the slot, Palffy scored his seventh goal of the season.

At 17:15, the Blue Jackets tied the score on a power-play goal by 18-year-old rookie Rick Nash, the No. 1 pick in June’s entry draft.

The Kings squandered a great chance to reclaim the lead early in the second period, failing to score during a two-man advantage after Luke Richardson (cross-checking) and Matt Davidson (holding) were penalized on the same play.

Blue Jacket Coach Dave King, whose team scored two power-play goals while killing all six of its penalties, called it the turning point of the game.

“Because we survived it,” he said.

Ray Whitney, on a shot from the right faceoff circle, gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 19:17, but Deadmarsh scored only 22 seconds later. His 10th goal, off a pass from Allison, pulled the Kings even going into the third period.

Three minutes into it, Walser scored from the top of the slot.