Panthers Score Early and Often and Kings Get Shut Out Again

King fans needed to watch only the first 46 seconds of Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers to know that it was going to be a long night at the Forum.

With the same type of play that has been a problem the last six weeks, the Kings’ defense allowed Florida center Rob Niedermayer to skate uncontested in their zone and beat King goalie Stephane Fiset from the slot to give the Panthers a lead before most of the Forum crowd of 12,227 sat in their seats.

Before the game was over, the Kings completed their dismal effort by giving up four more goals in losing, 5-0, for their fourth consecutive defeat.

In being blanked for the seventh time this season, the Kings were booed as they left the ice. With 42 regular season games remaining, they are quickly closing in on their franchise record of nine shutouts, set in their first season in 1967-68.

“I don’t have any answers. . . . I wish I had something original to say,” King center Ray Ferraro said. “But I don’t. It’s been a long last four or five weeks. If we don’t find a way to compete a little better, it’s going to be a long final three months for us.”

The Kings have the lowest point total in the NHL (30) and until they are able to get injured regulars such as defensemen Rob Blake, Sean O’Donnell and Steven Finn and forwards Vitali Yachmenev, Yanic Perreault, Matt Johnson and Craig Johnson back in the lineup, the future does not look good.

“We have more guys in the infirmary than we have on the team right now,” Coach Larry Robinson said. “You can’t play with half your team.

“They took all the life out of us tonight.”

Nearly the entire Panther team had a good scoring night. Defenseman Gord Murphy scored two goals, right wing Scott Mellanby scored once and had two assists, left wing Johan Garpenlov had three assists and Niedermayer added an assist to go with his goal.

Not bad for a team that had scored only two goals in its last three games. But then, the Panthers were playing the Kings, who have made it a recent practice of being the team to end any opponent’s losing streak. In going 4-16-1 since Nov. 20, the Kings ended slumps for Tampa Bay, Calgary, St. Louis, Colorado, Vancouver and now Florida.

“They’re a young team, but it seems like they don’t have confidence right now,” Garpenlov said. “At least tonight they seemed that way.”

After Niedermayer’s goal, the Panthers took a 2-0 lead at 7:44 when Mellanby scored on a rebound from the slot after Florida defenseman Paul Laus kept the puck in the Kings’ zone.

The Kings did not get their first shot on goal until 8:50 and had only six shots on goal in the first period.

Florida also scored early in the second period right wing Radek Dvorak beat Fiset from the left circle at 1:59 to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead. Murphy then scored his first goal of the game when he put in a shot from the right circle at 3:37.

So where do the Kings go from here? Do they wait until their injured players return or do they start bringing up some of their younger players in the minors, defenseman Aki Berg or center Roman Vopat?

“If we’re going to go through hard times like this, we should at least make it development time for our kids,” Robinson said.