In Los Angeles, the Kings’ downward spiral continued on Wednesday night with a dreadful 5-3 loss to the visiting Buffalo Sabres. 
The Kings held a 3-1 lead after the opening stanza, and surrendered four straight in the loss.
JJ Peterka hit for a double and three points in the Sabres win.
“We knew last night was probably one of our worst games,” Peterka said. “We wanted to play a different game. Going down wasn’t what we planned. Sticking to our game plan and forechecking hard [was], and that’s what guys did.”
Devon Levi made 37 saves in the win.
The Sabres moved to 21-23-4.
LA took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal from Anze Kopitar at 2:55.
“What I’m seeing is we’re not playing as a team right now,” Kopitar said. “We’re worried about scoring goals too much and not buying into the stuff that made us successful the first 30, 35 games of the year. And it’s frustrating, so we’re going to have to correct it and we’re going to have to correct it in a hurry.”
Buffalo replied when Peterka potted his first of the night at 5:01 to tie it at 1-1.
The Kings dropped to 22-14-9, and have won two of their last 14 games..
“That’s unacceptable,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “We’re up 3-1. We’re maybe not playing our best, but the stupidity that went into that loss is unexplainable. I could come up here and tell you that, ‘Hey, in the past we’ve been close, maybe we didn’t get some luck around the net.’ But I haven’t, until now, been able to come in and say, ‘Boy, we played really dumb.’ And that’s what we did.”
Adrian Kempe restored the LA lead, 2-1, at at 5:24.
The Kings made it 3-1 headed to the middle frame off a power play strike by Pierre-Luc Dubois midway through the first.
In the second period, Peterka hit for his double at 8:22 off a breakaway, and Jack Quinn scored just over two minutes later to take LA out of the game.
The two markers put the Sabres even up with LA, 3-3 after 40 minutes of play. There was no push back from the Kings.
In the third period, Buffalo added two more goals.
“I think when you have those games and you see that you can come back, it gives you energy for the rest of the season,” Peterka said.
Alex Tuch hit for a goal at 5:49 of the third to give the Sabres a 4-3 lead.
Dylan Cozens added insurance at 8:54 of then of the third off a wrist shot from the right side for the 5-3 final count on the scoreboard. 
Cam Talbot made 32 saves in the loss.
“I think we’ve got guys in this room who are too worried about themselves and worried about their points and worry about stuff like that,” the Kings’ Drew Doughty said. “We had a 3-1 lead tonight, and guys started thinking it’s a cookie night, and we stopped playing the way we know how to play.
“We have an awful second period and then aren’t much better in the third. It’s about the team. It’s not about yourself, and a lot of guys on this team, we need to realize that.”
If that does not spell doom for LA this season, without a dramatic, Hollywood style turnaround, then the season is over in LA.
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