Kings Stumble to Latest Loss

EDMONTON, Canada â€”  This was a photo opportunity to frame the Kings’ season.

Defenseman Brent Sopel was skating backward one moment, and on his backside the next. The Edmonton’s Oilers’ Jarret Stoll whizzed by with the puck, centered to Raffi Torres and the red light went on.

A scant 1 minute 43 seconds into Thursday’s game and the Oilers were off on a 4-0 victory at Rexall Place that maintained their hold on the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. The Kings, meanwhile, had fallen and there is not much chance of them getting up.

The loss left the 10th-place Kings five points out of a playoff position with eight games left. Barring a stunning turnaround, they’ll be watching the postseason from home for a third consecutive season.

“We got down 1-0, but we can’t let that eviscerate us like that,� assistant captain Luc Robitaille said. “You got to keep playing. You have to build on something. This is going to take the veterans now. We can’t lose any more games.�

The Kings had “waited five years for this season,� team Chief Executive Tim Leiweke proclaimed in August, referring to the new collective bargain agreement he felt would allow the team to compete with the NHL elite. Instead the season has looked disturbingly like the others, with the Kings besieged by injuries and beset with ineffectiveness.

On Jan. 5, they beat the Phoenix Coyotes and sat atop the Pacific Division, leading the Dallas Stars by four points. The Kings have an 11-17-3 record since and have beaten only three teams that currently hold a playoff spot. The rapid spiral downward already led to coach Andy Murray’s firing and has left General Manager Dave Taylor’s job in jeopardy.

“This hurts,� assistant captain Craig Conroy said. “We’ve pretty much put ourselves in the position where we have to run the table. We’ve got to start playing smart out there. We’re not playing playoff hockey.�

The Kings went into this three-game trip to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton knowing they had to beat Vancouver on Monday and Edmonton -- the conference’s seventh- and eighth-place teams. Instead, the Kings lost all three, resembling a care-package sent north to help all three Canadian teams improve their playoff hopes.

“We can’t get out of this if we don’t show up to work,� assistant captain Jeremy Roenick said.

The Kings didn’t do that Thursday. They had only 20 shots against Oiler goaltender Dwayne Roloson, who had been playing on shaky skates since being acquired from the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline. The Kings came up empty on four power plays, with three weak efforts coming in the second period when the score was 2-0.

The latest unfortunate poster boy on this night was Sopel, who was on the ice for all four Oiler goals. His footwork had a hand in three.

Late in the first period, Sergei Samsonov flipped the puck to the right of Sopel, then skated around Sopel’s left, retrieved the puck and tucked in a nifty backhander for a 2-0 lead. In the second period, the Oilers’ Ales Hemsky cut in front of the net with the puck. Sopel slid into the crease and obstructed goaltender Mathieu Garon, leaving an open net for Hemsky.