[0] KING-SIZED LETDOWN BEFORE BREAK L.A.'S 3 ALL-STARS COULD DWINDLE TO 2 AFTER DISAPPOINTING LOSS NASHVILLE 6, KINGS 4.

Byline: Matt McHale Staff Writer

Luc Robitaille is one of three Kings heading to the All-Star game. He knows only two might be coming home.

Robitaille also knows the season will continue if Rob Blake is traded and that he might become captain of a team struggling to make the playoffs. He knows his goals are needed but they won't be enough. The Kings proved this Thursday night in a dreary 6-4 loss to the Nashville Predators at Staples Center.

Robitaille, Blake and Ziggy Palffy leave this afternoon for Denver, which is hosting the 51st annual All-Star game on Sunday. It will be Robitaille's eighth appearance, but he knows the Kings have 30 games left and they can't keep blowing leads to lesser teams like they did against the Predators.

``I think we've been dealing with the Rob situation for so long that there is nothing to do until it happens,'' said Robitaille, who scored two goals against the Predators and now has four in his last two games. ``We lost games in the first half to teams we should have beaten. That won't happen in the second half.''

Sounds like a captain already. But it still was hard to explain how the Predators tied the game when the Kings allowed power-play goals by Greg Classen and Mark Eaton less than a minute apart after Blake and Kelly Buchberger were whistled off for penalties.

Nashville won it at the 14:11 mark of the third period on the fourth consecutive goal, scored on a give-and-go by Greg Johnson on an assist by Patric Kjellberg. Tom Fitzgerald scored into an empty net with :30 left, but the damage was already done. The Kings had led 4-1 late in the second period.

It was more of a pattern that has haunted the Kings all season. They crushed Dallas 8-0 on Tuesday, then struggled against a team trailing them in the Western Conference standings. This year, they have beaten the league's elite including the Stars, Colorado, St. Louis, Ottawa and New Jersey.

They also have lost to Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Florida and the Mighty Ducks - four of the NHL's worst.

``We haven't been putting teams away and the good teams,'' Robitaille said, ``whatever happens to Rob we still have to go out and beat those teams. If we do the season will take care of itself.''

Not only did he score against Nashville, Robitaille did it with a flourish. Timely, too, since the Predators (22-25-7) were coming off a 3-0 victory Wednesday against the Ducks and could have passed the Kings for ninth in the Western Conference.

Instead, the Kings finish with 56 points at the break, the same total they had last season at All-Star time. A year ago, however, the Kings were in seventh place.

The Predators got the game's first goal shorthanded when Tom Fitzgerald beat Jamie Storr at 7:02 of the first period.

after taking a long pass from Bill Houlder behind the Nashville net. Blake tried to swoop in at the end with a hip check, but Fitzgerald got the shot off first. It went over Storr's right shoulder for his sixth goal of the season.

After Robitaille tied the game eight minutes later, the Kings scored three times in the first five minutes of the second period to take a 4-1 lead.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo: (color) Kings' Rob Blake, left, gets after a loose puck Thursday alongside the Nashville's Greg Johnson.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer