AVALANCHE, SAKIC THROW KINGS FOR A LOSS IT'S AN EMBARRASSMENT, MURRAY SAYS AFTER GAME COLORADO 6, KINGS 2.

Byline: Matt McHale Staff Writer

DENVER - The Kings have seen enough of Joe Sakic. Now, they need to look at themselves.

The trip that began with such promise ended Tuesday night with a 6-2 rout by the Colorado Avalanche in front of 18,007 fans at Pepsi Center who watched Sakic score his fourth and fifth goals against the Kings in less than two weeks.

Instead of the spirited defense that carried them to back to back victories against St. Louis and Dallas, the Kings were so listless in front of goaltender Steve Passmore they trailed 4-0 just 23 minutes into the game.

``Someone pulled the plug on our team,'' Kings coach Andy Murray said. ``When that happens against a team this good, you get embarrassed and we did.''

Murray was so angry with his team, he pulled some players off the team bus to lecture them again. Then he gave them today off to think about what had happened.

``It just wasn't there the whole game,'' said Mathieu Schneider, who scored one of the Kings' two goals. ``When you start the way we did, you know you are in for a long night.''

Or a long season. The Kings (17-15-7) moved into eighth in the West after beating the Blues and Stars, then dropped back to ninth before losing to Detroit on New Year's Eve. Only eight teams make the playoffs.

But the back-to-back losses illustrate how inconsistent the Kings have been all season. After losing to expansion Columbus on Oct. 31, the Kings were unbeaten in the next eight then winless in the next four. They won four of five then were winless in their next six.

They headed on the road against four of the best teams in the conference and quickly ended the Blues' 12-game unbeaten streak.

``If we knew what the problems were we'd fix it,'' captain Rob Blake said.

One problem might be helped Thursday when the Kings are expected to activate Ziggy Palffy, the league's second-leading scorer before he tore his right hamstring two weeks ago. On Tuesday, they got back right wing Glen Murray, who missed six weeks after knee surgery.

Not that either would have helped against Sakic, whose two goals and three assists gives him the league scoring lead with 55 points. His scourge against the Kings began Dec. 21, when he scored his 10th career hat trick. If Passmore hadn't stopped him on a breakaway with 9:46 left in the game, Sakic would have had his 11th.

``We just had a lot of fun out there,'' Sakic said. ``It was one of those games that seemed to open up for us and everything was going in.''

When Scott Thomas cut the Avs' lead to 4-2 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the second period, the Kings got a little burst of energy. Eighteen seconds later it was gone when Alex Tanguay scored on an assist from Sakic.

``It was just a bad team game,'' said Passmore, who faced 34 shots. ``We had a little momentum and maybe if I make a couple of saves we can turn it around. But like that it was gone.''

Not only did they lose the game, the Kings lost winger Nelson Emerson with a concussion late in the first period after he was slammed into the boards by the Avs' Chris Dingman.

Just seconds after he came out of the penalty box, Dingman was confronted by Kings enforcer Stu Grimson, who pummeled him to the ice. Grimson received five minutes for fighting, two minutes for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct.

By that time, Colorado already led by three goals. They made it 4-0 just three minutes into the second period on Milan Hejduk's second goal of the game and 21st of the season.

That only made it worse for Emerson, who spent the rest of the game in the trainer's room.

``I'm a little woozy right now,'' said Emerson, who suffered a concussion last year as a member of the Atlanta Thrashers. ``I've had two (concussions) that have been diagnosed in my career. It's part of the game. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.''

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Photo: (color) Kings defenseman Jaroslav Modry, left, sends Colorado's Joe Sakic into the boards.

David Zalubowski/Associated Press