Kings and Palffy Stay Put for Now

At least the Kings didn’t lose ground in the playoff race.

And Ziggy Palffy turned in another sterling effort, prompting club President Tim Leiweke to say that Palffy probably, almost certainly, will not be traded.

Otherwise, it was a mostly forgettable Saturday for the Kings, who squandered a chance to get back to .500, giving up three goals in the first 25 minutes and losing to the New York Islanders, 3-2, in front of 18,118 at Staples Center.

Palffy, the subject for weeks of trade rumors that the Kings have declined to quash, set up their first goal and scored the second unassisted.

The winger has 10 goals and 10 assists in the last 13 games.

“Unless we get a phenomenal offer, he’s not going anywhere,” Leiweke said before the third period from his luxury suite in the arena’s south end. “He’s been as good over the last two weeks as he’s ever been in a King uniform.”

Palffy’s latest effort, including a game-high seven shots on goal, wasn’t enough to subdue the Islanders, who despite being outshot, 33-16, sent the Kings to only their second loss in seven games.

“I don’t think we’ll be totally unhappy with the game after we look at the statistics,” King Coach Andy Murray said, “but what good does that do you when you lose the game? There’s no satisfaction. There’s no such thing as a moral victory.”

And, for the Kings, there was no gaining ground on the Edmonton Oilers, who held onto an eight-point lead over the 10th-place Kings in the race for eighth place in the Western Conference despite losing to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2.

“We’ve got to stop worrying about the big picture so much as each game,” defenseman Aaron Miller said after the Kings fell to 24-26-4-4, nine points below where they were after 58 games last season. “This was a tough loss.”

Mathieu Schneider gave the Kings their only lead at 9:52 of the first period, scoring a power-play goal on a blast from the high slot. Palffy made it possible, aggressively digging the puck out from a scrum in front of the net and sending a pass to Schneider, whose goal was his 12th.

Less than a minute later, Arron Asham pulled the Islanders even with the first of his two goals, scoring on the power play at 10:39.

At 2:19 of the second period, the Islanders took the lead for good, Jason Blake scoring his 17th goal on a breakaway.

At 4:11, Asham scored again, eluding defenseman Joe Corvo in front of the net and taking a pass from Brad Isbister before slipping the puck past goaltender Jamie Storr for his 10th goal.

Six shots had produced all the scoring the Islanders would need.

“It was just a case of making mental errors that led to their goals,” Miller said. “I thought we played pretty good defensively, but we had a few lapses.”

Palffy, who has scored at least a point in eight straight games and 12 of 13, scored his 23rd goal on a breakaway at 12:34 of the second, carrying the puck up the right side and ripping it past goaltender Garth Snow.

Later in the period, Snow and Storr exchanged unpleasantries at center ice after Storr pushed his counterpart during a stoppage in play.

Snow got the last word: 15 third-period saves and the victory.

On the plus side for the Kings, at least they still had Palffy, who nearly tied the score early in the third period, his shot ricocheting off the right post.

“If we didn’t have him right now,” teammate Bryan Smolinski said, “we’d be in big trouble.”