LOS ANGELES_The Los Angeles Kings have practiced almost every morning since early October.
So Coach Darryl Sutter was asked before Thursday night's game against the Boston Bruins what he could still be teaching the players six months later.
"Just reinforcing small details from prior games," he said. "Or if you see a history of reoccurring things _ good things, bad things. A lot of it now is reinforcement."
One thing that hasn't been reoccurring for the Kings are victories, a 4-1 loss to the Bruins at Staples Center leaving them with only two wins in their last eight games.
They last won consecutive games three weeks ago, and with the latest loss they dropped four points behind the Calgary Flames in the battle for the Western Conference's final wild-card playoff spot.
The Kings' lone goal came from Kevin Gravel, his first in the NHL, while Boston got scores from Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Dominic Moore and David Krejci, the last two empty-netters in the final 65 seconds.
Both teams scored power-play goals, which is headline news in itself since Boston's penalty kill has been the best in the league this season while the Kings have led the NHL in that department over the last month.
Pastrnak's goal, which proved to be the winner, came with Boston enjoying the man advantage less than five minutes into the second period.
With Kyle Clifford in the box for tripping, Pastrnak broke his stick on a one-timer from the top of the left circle but the puck knuckled past Kings goalie Peter Budaj for Pastrnak's 26th goal of the season _ and only the second the Kings have given up on the power play in their last 37 chances.
Boston scored its first goal less than five minutes into the game.
The Kings' Jake Muzzin lost the puck along the boards well inside the blue line and Marchand quickly broke the other way, covering more than half the ice before beating Budaj with a wrister from the right faceoff circle for his 26th goal.
That came 3:16 after the opening faceoff.
The Kings matched that in the final two minutes of the first period with Gravel's first NHL goal.
Adrian Kempe set up the power-play score, collecting the rebound of a long Alec Martinez slap shot and slipping it between the legs of Boston defender Kevan Miller to Gravel, who redirected the puck into the net from the edge of the right circle.
The assist was Kempe's second in five NHL games.
Peter Cehlarik appeared to put Boston back in front seconds later with his first NHL goal.
But Sutter argued that the Bruins were offside _ and when the video showed that he was right, the goal was taken off the board.
Gravel also lost a goal midway through the second period when his shot from the blue line beat Boston goalie Anton Khudobin cleanly but caromed off the crossbar.
Khudobin, playing his 10th game of the season and only his second since Christmas, came in with two wins and a .888 save percentage.
But he looked like Patrick Roy against the Kings, repeatedly frustrating them while stopping 27 shots on goal.
