Los Angeles Kings Hockey Team

When the Kings' prized rookie defenseman Drew Doughty crumpled to the ice after a big hit from Tampa Bay's Evgeny Artyukhin midway through the second period, his defensive partner, Sean O'Donnell, chased Artyukhin off the ice, jabbing him with his stick until he drew a cross-checking penalty. Doughty left the game because of a bruised thigh. As for the response from the rest of the Kings? The Staples Center crowd -- and Coach Terry Murray -- are still waiting.

Practice didn't necessarily translate into perfect play for the Kings over the weekend, but the result was two consecutive victories for only the second time this season. The Kings rallied for three goals in the third period Saturday to defeat host Colorado. Then they flew to Chicago and played in front of 21,715, the largest crowd to attend a Blackhawks game in six years, and again were strong at the end, scoring in the final period and in overtime for a 3-2 victory.

A hint of what was to come Tuesday at Staples Center actually came Sunday a couple of time zones away in Chicago. Call it "The Reawakening of Ladislav Nagy." And the Kings followed. Nagy matched a career high with five points -- three goals and two assists -- in leading the Kings to a 9-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks in front of 18,916 at Staples Center on Tuesday.

The power play went cold, the goaltending went sour and the Kings let two 30-something centers deliver their best performances in a long while. So much for the three-game winning streak. Michael Peca scored two goals, Sergei Fedorov had a goal and an assist and the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Kings, 4-3, Thursday night at Staples Center.

The Kings remain grounded in last place in the Western Conference, 13 points shy of the final playoff spot with more than half the season completed. Is now the time to pull the parachute and trade a veteran player, such as defenseman Rob Blake, for young talent before the Feb. 26 deadline? "Unfortunately, we're probably going to be in that type of position," said Blake, who turned 38 last month. "We would've rather been battling for a playoff spot."

The Kings came into this season hoping to bulldoze their opponents, but so far they're performing more like a backhoe. They dug themselves another quick hole Saturday night against the visiting Calgary Flames, dug themselves out with three consecutive goals in the third period and then everything caved in down the stretch, as the Flames scored three straight of their own to win, 6-4, in front of the sixth sellout crowd of the season at Staples Center.

The glimmer-of-hope news: Michael Cammalleri, spotted just before 11:30 in the morning Monday at the Kings' practice facility in El Segundo, actually skating again for the first time since he briefly attempted doing so the day after Christmas. The reality: He was wearing a red jersey, signifying his injured status and the exercise of skating was just that, skating, not an imminent return. He has been sidelined since suffering a rib injury in the early minutes against Nashville on Dec. 22.

Apparently, this is what the abyss -- or in more literal terms, rock bottom -- looks like in a Kings season gone beyond the tipping point. Not only did they fail to score against, or barely hit, an alleged road-weary Nashville, which had played and lost the night before in Anaheim, but the Kings allowed three first-period goals in a dizzying, disengaged span of 1 minute 15 seconds, a Predators team record.

Let's be honest: The Kings' season ended Tuesday with their disgustingly passive 7-0 loss to Nashville, their 27th defeat. The final playoff spot in the West last season was earned by Calgary, which had 29 losses. So unless the Kings start something like a 36-2 surge tonight, this will be another broken promise from a club that vowed it would become a Stanley Cup contender under the salary-cap system but sabotaged itself with bad free-agent signings and timidity in the front office.

The Kings were back on the ice Wednesday morning at their practice facility in El Segundo, but not before they had a closed-door meeting with Coach Marc Crawford in the wake of their embarrassing 7-0 loss to Nashville the night before. "I've been a player and when you play poorly, you expect something to be said," Crawford said. "I don't think anybody came here happy." The Kings gave up three goals in 75 seconds of the first period, falling behind first for the 13th time in 14 games.