from Lisa Dillman of the LA Times,

If there is a price to be paid for playing 11 playoff series and 64 playoff games in the past three years, one can argue that the Kings are making that payment right now.

As of Tuesday, the reigning Stanley Cup champion Kings are on the outside looking in, out of a playoff spot, trailing the Calgary Flames by one point for the last Western Conference spot. The Flames finished 23 points behind the Kings in the final standings last season.

The Kings have one more game before the All-Star break, at San Jose on Wednesday, a symbolic point of the season.

"We've set ourselves up to be in a dogfight now," Kings forward Justin Williams said. "We didn't set ourselves up so we could be more comfortable."...

"They have to keep understanding and listening to what I'm telling them about how tough it is," Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said Tuesday. "The train has got to be a work train, not the Stanley Cup train. The Stanley Cup train was last year and some guys just have to get off that train. There's no extra for it. You get nothing for it."

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