Everything that could go right went wrong

The Predators play tonight in New Jersey, meaning they won’t exactly be fresh and rested when they face the Kings tomorrow night. [edit: They’ll have to do it without reinforcements, as Dean Lombardi confirmed Friday night that the Kings will not make any call-ups before the game.] Of course, the St. Louis Blues were in the exact same situation last night — not to mention their run of injuries — and the Kings did little to capitalize in the first two periods. Getting an early jump on a team that played the previous night is typically a major focus for the more-rested team, and the Kings didn’t do that against St. Louis. They’ll get another chance against the Predators tomorrow, but Terry Murray didn’t see the start of the game as being the Kings’ only problem…

MURRAY: “I’m not pleased with the whole game. We had a meeting, before we left to go to practice today, and that was the focal point of what I talked about, was the opportunity that was there, last night, to win a game in (an opposing) team’s building, a conference team who had played the night before, traveled, had an injury to another one of their better young defenseman. They were playing their backup goaltender — and no disrespect to Conklin — but the table was set there, to come out with the right kind of play, to do some good things. Even with that, we were at 4-4 with three minutes left in the game. So, doing the right things and finishing it off, even if you don’t win it in regulation, you get an important point out of it by pushing it to the overtime and see what happens in that look. The inconsistency there, of just executing and doing the right thing, and just mentally being connected to the intensity of the game, was what was disturbing to me last night.”