KINGS NOTEBOOK: L.A. POWER PLAY ON WEAK STREAK.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

It's the duty of Kings coach Andy Murray to dissect every aspect of his team to find out what needs to be corrected in times of struggle, but at least one part of the Kings' up-and-down play over the past couple of weeks is easy to decipher.

In the Kings' five-game winning streak from Dec. 13-20, they scored nine power-play goals in 23 changes, an astounding conversion rate of 39 percent. Since then, the Kings have gone 0-2-2 and have not scored a goal in their last 15 power-play chances.

The Kings went 0 for 7 on the power play in Saturday night's 5-4 loss to the New York Rangers, and on four of those chances, they recorded either one or zero shots on goal. This from the team that entered the game tied for the league lead in power-play goals with 35.

Even worse, the Kings allowed a shorthanded goal to Manny Malhotra in the second period, when they had a chance to tie the game 3-3 with Steve McKenna in the penalty box for a double-minor high-sticking call.

``Momentum on your special teams is very important,'' Murray said. ``Obviously you want to score on every power play, but the most important thing is to establish and maintain momentum.

``We had some momentum going into that power play, we had them under the gun a little bit, but then we didn't get one, and we allowed them a shorthanded (goal).''

The Kings' power play should receive a boost in the next few days with the expected return of winger Ziggy Palffy and defenseman Matthieu Schneider.

``Our power play was a reason we were winning a lot of games, because we weren't scoring a lot of five-on-five goals,'' defenseman Aaron Miller said. ``Right now, we can't seem to get anything going on the power play, so it's something we will have to work on.''

--Slumbering start: Another area of concern is the fact that the Kings have allowed the opposing team to score the first goal in five consecutive games, and constantly playing from behind can wear on a team.

``We've fallen behind early a lot this month and I haven't been able to put my finger (on why),'' Murray said.

In the four games before Saturday, the Kings were able to rebound with the second goal and stay in the game, but they fell behind 3-1 against the Rangers.

``We had been giving up the first goal and digging ourselves out of it before,'' Miller said, ``but this was just too big of a hole.''