from Curtis Zupke of the LA Times,
It was one fell swoop, er, one illegal hit against the one team they couldn’t put on the power play that doomed them Thursday. Dustin Brown’s hit on Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz resulted in a five-minute boarding major that the Penguins used to put the game away 3-1 and send the Kings to a season-high fifth straight loss in front of 18,230 fans at Staples Center.
The reverberations were felt in the standings, too, because the Kings fell to ninth in the Western Conference, or out of the playoff picture for the first time this season. That’s based on a game in hand by the Colorado Avalanche, but it’s a minor detail in a bigger picture that is slipping from the Kings’ hands.
“It’s been tough,” Brown said. “It’s frustrating to lose five straight, especially in the situation we were in … it’s one of those things where you have to realize where you are. It’s been hard. It’s been brutal here for us, frustrating. But … we’re still fighting for a spot.”
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