Given a Choice, He Picked a Win

It was clear that Luc Robitaille was going to have trouble extending his 15-game point streak against Nashville, so the next best thing was to help somebody else.

“They were real tight on me,” Robitaille said of the Predators, who were beaten, 3-2, by the Kings in overtime Saturday night.

“Every time I got in the [attacking] zone, there were guys tight on me.”

After sizing that up over two periods, Robitaille took a different tack.

“I started setting some picks to try to get Ziggy [Palffy] some open space,” he said.

It didn’t get Palffy a goal, but in the overtime--which lasted only 28 seconds--Palffy had room to get a pass to Jozef Stumpel for the game-winning goal.

On that play, Robitaille’s last chance to extend his streak to 16 games, which would have been a league-high this season, he went to the net and was the only King on the ice not to touch the puck.

Defenseman Rob Blake got the other assist.

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The Kings adopted a wait-and-see stance on goalie Stephane Fiset on Sunday, holding off a decision to move up Marcel Cousineau from Long Beach.

Fiset, who had started six of the last seven games, suffered a groin strain Saturday night while handling a shot in the second period.

Cousineau will be the logical choice if Fiset is unable to handle at least backup chores for Tuesday night’s game against Detroit. Jamie Storr, who relieved Fiset in the second period Saturday and earned the overtime victory--his 14th, most in a season in his career--is the logical starter.

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Bryan Smolinski, who suffered a scratched cornea when hit by the stick of Nashville’s Greg Johnson on Saturday night, checked out all right Sunday and is expected to be able to play against Detroit.

Smolinski and Mattias Norstrom are the only Kings to have played in all 65 games this season.