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Skidding Isles take on Kings in LA

Dec 7, 2013 - 3:35 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The free-falling New York Islanders will try to avoid a ninth straight loss when they visit the Los Angeles Kings for Saturday's battle at the Staples Center.

New York currently is suffering through an 0-6-2 slide and hasn't won since recording a home win on Nov. 16 against Detroit. The Islanders, who are sitting last in the Metropolitan Division with 21 points, have managed just two wins and six total points over the last 15 games (2-11-2).

The Isles did not get off to a promising start on a five-game road trip, losing the opener of the swing by a 5-1 score Thursday in St. Louis. New York tied the score at 1-1 early in the second period before allowing four unanswered goals to the Blues.

Andrew MacDonald tallied the lone goal for the Islanders, who are mired in their longest losing streak since a club-record 14-game slide (0-11-3) from Oct. 23-Nov. 24, 2010.

Anders Nilsson allowed all five goals on 26 shots in Thursday's loss.

New York has scored a total of five goals over its last four outings and has only managed to record more than two scores in a game once during its current slide. The Isles tallied three times in a 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Nov. 22.

"We're a club right now that's not scoring," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. "We had chances in the first, thought we dictated the play against a really good hockey team. Second period, all of a sudden, bang, bang, bang, and we can't respond.

"Again, we're not a team that's scoring many goals right now."

Kevin Poulin expects to get the start for New York on Saturday. His only career outing against the Kings came earlier this season when L.A. notched a 3-2 win at Nassau Coliseum on Nov. 14. That victory was the seventh for the Kings in their last nine meetings against the Islanders.

New York has lost three straight and five of its past seven games at the Staples Center.

The Kings enter Saturday's battle having won two straight to begin this month after going 1-1-3 in their final five games of November. L.A. recorded a 3-2 regulation win against visiting St. Louis on Monday and won by the same score the following night in a shootout victory at Anaheim.

Dwight King scored in the ninth round of the shootout to lead the Kings to the 3-2 win over the rival Ducks. The first 16 skaters failed to find the back of the net in the shootout before King buried a wrister past Jonas Hiller for the lead.

"Basically, a lot of guys shot glove, some guys hit iron," said King. "My look when I was going down was to try to surprise him with a quick shot."

Martin Jones, playing in his first NHL game, then stopped Mathieu Perreault's weak offering for the win.

Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter scored in regulation, while Jones made 26 stops for the Kings.

Ben Scrivens expects to start in net for the Kings on Saturday. He is 1-1-0 with a 4.02 goals against average in two career games against the Islanders.

After tonight's home test, the Kings will play their next four games on the road. L.A. has similar records at home and on the road this season, going 9-4-2 at the Staples Center and 9-3-2 everywhere else.