Los Angeles Kings Hockey Team

The Kings began the second half of their season much as they skidded toward the end of the first half -- with sloppy defensive play, a lack of discipline and an ugly loss at home. Turnovers and the disintegration of their team-first game consigned the Kings to a 3-2 loss to Toronto Monday before a crowd of 17,834 at Staples Center. The Kings are 1-5 on an eight-game homestand that has become a nightmare that won't end. The Kings (23-18-1) have lost six of their last seven games.

The Kings are imploding, their discipline splintering as rapidly as opponents are outracing their flat-footed defense. They are tripping over the expectations set out for them and by themselves, entirely too fragile mentally and unwilling or unable to make the sacrifices they gladly made last season while stamping themselves as a team to watch. A good beginning Thursday turned into a horror show, a lifeless 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators that extended their losing streak to a season-worst five and left them winless halfway into an eight-game homestand that should have been their springboard to solidifying a playoff spot.

The Kings ended a peculiar streak against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night, going to the sixth round of a shootout for a 3-2 victory that goaltender Jonathan Quick sealed with a glove save of an Andrew Cogliano shot. The Oilers won their previous five games in Staples Center, all by shootout, but when Jarret Stoll's shot in the third sudden-death round got a piece of Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk and dribbled over the line, it sent Terry Murray toward his 100th win as Kings coach.

From Chicago The Kings attacked well in spurts, defended well in spurts, and did enough things right Sunday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks to realize that consistency ? or their maddening lack of it ? will determine their fate this season. "I thought we played a pretty good game," center Anze Kopitar said, "but a pretty good game against these guys is not enough. " The Blackhawks, depleted by injuries but regrouping on the fly, made sure "pretty good" was inadequate for the Kings.

Defenseman Drew Doughty had called the Kings' game against Florida Thursday a must-win situation. Anze Kopitar's skill in back-handing a rebound past Tomas Vokoun spared Doughty the prospect of eating his words in defeat. "I don't even want to know what would have happened," Doughty said after Kopitar's goal at 17:17 of the third period lifted the Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Panthers at Staples Center, ending their four-game losing streak and halting a 1-7 slide. "Now that we finally got this win we're going to come out for the next game with a lot of confidence and be at our best.

Last season, Kings Coach Terry Murray played Jonathan Quick too much and wore out his young goaltender. This season Murray might not be playing Quick enough -- but that could soon change. Quick faced a season-high 41 shots by the Boston Bruins on Saturday in regulation and overtime and was perfect in a six-round shootout, keeping the Kings afloat until Michal Handzus rifled a wrist shot past Tim Thomas' stick for a 4-3 victory at TD Garden. The Kings, playing on the second successive night and teetering after losing three straight games, had built a 3-0 lead early in the second period on goals by Brad Richardson, Handzus and Jarret Stoll.

Is this how the Kings will allow their season to end, outmuscled and outclassed, fading away under a barrage of glove-side-high goals and giveaways that stain the memory of the progress they had made? Their 7-2 loss to the Canucks on Friday at GM Place was an abomination of bad goaltending and bad defensive play, a deplorable effort by a team that had, rightfully, prided itself on its cohesion and resilience. The Kings trail the Canucks, 3-2, in this best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series.

The Kings' free-agent class of 2007-08 took its share of hits, ripped for not producing and quickly disbanded. But not completely. One guy from that class survived, and thrived on the biggest stage, the NHL playoffs. Center Michal Handzus scored twice, both on the power play, and added an assist to help lead the Kings to a 5-3 victory in Game 3 of their playoff series against the Canucks. The others from that class — defenseman Tom Preissing and forwards Kyle Calder and Ladislav Nagy — are long gone.

The Kings celebrated their 2-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday as though they had won the Stanley Cup, hugging and grinning and venting 82 games' worth of emotion and exhaustion. Every player in the Kings' locker room believed that Dustin Brown's goal 1 minute and 31 seconds into overtime did more than end their season on a happy note. More, even, than give them a respectable sixth-place finish in the West after Detroit defeated Chicago in overtime and maneuvered the Kings into a first-round playoff matchup with the Vancouver Canucks this week.

The playoffs are coming quicker than you can say Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick is winless in his last seven starts. Quick's personal frustration was extended Thursday as the Kings squandered a late lead and lost to the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, in a shootout at Staples Center. The consolation point lifted them into fifth place in the Western Conference — and a potential first-round playoff matchup against the Coyotes — but it wasn't a lot of consolation at all. "I don't know who I prefer to play," Kings Coach Terry Murray said.