Flyers’ Quick Start Leaves Outclassed Kings in the Dust

PHILADELPHIA —  To recap, talk was of a 3-1 trip, no worse than 2-2, one that would propel the Kings back into the Western Conference playoff race.

It was the right way to come back from the All-Star break.

Goals by Eric Desjardins, Valeri Zelepukin, Keith Jones and Eric Lindros gave the Flyers a 4-2 victory Monday night that finished a 1-3 trip for the Kings.

It was the wrong way to come back from the All-Star break, and all the brave talk of a week ago had the persuasive effect of a Senate filibuster.

“Disappointing,” was Coach Larry Robinson’s assessment of the trip. “We had hoped for more. We needed more.”

They got less, particularly Monday night.

“You go ask Philadelphia if they are bruised after playing us,” said King defenseman Rob Blake, becoming increasingly harsh in his judgments as the season wears into oblivion and a playoff spot sinks into the sunset.

“They’ll tell you no. If you look at our game tonight, they pretty much toyed with us.”

After picking up goals by Desjardins and Zelepukin, the Flyers could do just that, sitting back in the neutral zone and waiting for the Kings to make a mistake. They made enough to lose the game.

“They got those two early goals when I don’t know if we were ready for them,” Robinson said. “I mean, we were ready, but sometimes you can over-respect a team. I think we over-respected them and didn’t give ourselves enough confidence.

“I think that after the first 10 minutes, we played them pretty well.”

After getting over being intimidated?

“Maybe,” he admitted.

By then, it was over. Desjardins scored from the right point at 3:08 of the first period and Zelepukin scored at 8:35 after he danced briefly with defenseman Mattias Norstrom in front of the goal, then stepped around him and beat goalie Stephane Fiset on the stick side.

“Take a look at our record,” said Ray Ferraro, whose goal at 11:19 cut the Flyer lead in half.

“We don’t do too well when the other team scores first.”

Their record is 2-21-1.

Ferraro teamed with Donald Audette on the Kings’ first goal, doing it the hard way: with a bare left hand to swing the stick. “My arm was tangled up, so I just left my glove,” Ferraro said of his meeting with a Flyer defenseman up ice. “I’ve never scored a goal bare-handed.”

He has now, and it cut the deficit to one.

That was still enough. When the Kings are behind after one period, they are 0-13.

“We got off to a quick start,” said the Flyers’ Eric Lindros, whose third-period goal was a 50-foot cannon shot from directly in front of the goal. It gave him a point in 11 consecutive games (eight goals, 14 assists).

“We didn’t play exceptionally well tonight,” Lindros said. “They have a better team than their record indicates.”

Better than 0-13 when behind after one period?

How about 0-16 when behind after two?

The Comeback Kids, they ain’t.

Jones’ goal came on a power play and, again, was scored from in close.

“That was a big difference,” Robinson said of proximity to the net, in a litany he repeats night after night and wonders why his charges don’t hear.

“They had guys that went to the net and paid the price with shots or screening the goalie.”

The Kings didn’t. . . . again.

For much of the game, the King offense was as cold as a walk through Olde Philadelphia on a February night.

They got a consolation-prize goal from Audette with 48 seconds to play, but by then the ship had sailed and they had lost their fifth game in their last six.

Garry Galley assisted on the goal while playing his 1,000th game in Philadelphia, where he had played so many as a Flyer.

Philadelphia is 4-0-1 in its last five games, 7-1-1 since the new year began.

The best thing that you can say about the trip is that it’s over and the Kings are going back to the West, where things are a bit more comfortable and where they are still only five points behind the Mighty Ducks for the conference’s final playoff spot.

“We’ve got games against Chicago [on Thursday] and San Jose [on Saturday], so we can make up some ground,” Blake said.

Maybe.

But then again, they wanted a 3-1 trip, no worse than 2-2. And got so much less.