• For the Hockeywood Dailies of this game, click here.

Game 40: Predators 5, Kings 2

To paraphrase Bill Murray from the movie, Stripes:

"There's something wrong with us. Something very, very wrong with us."

The Kings dropped their fifth straight game, and fourth at home, where they started the season 8-0. Since then, they have been completely erratic, truly a tale of two teams.

On one hand, you have a dominating squad that can snuff out even the hottest of teams. This is a team that was atop the Western Conference mid-November.

This is a team that shut out the Red Wings... at The Joe. This is a team that was in the top half of the league in scoring AND defense. And many people had this team tabbed as a favorite to win the Pacific.

Yet, their streaky, sloppy play is confounding, and there's no real scapegoat to point to. The plan by Dean Lombardi to instill a culture of winning obviously isn't taking when you obviously have some serious cracks in the foundation.

Which King will step up and lead this squad? Which King will it be to start smacking heads in the locker room and start getting this squad to play to their lofty expectations? They say Terry Murray isn't a screamer, but someone needs to raise their voice, get their attention, and start demanding perfection.

This is a young squad, granted. But unless you start showing by example what it means to live in a culture of winning, it won't take. It seems this squad is still trying to find its identity halfway through the season, and that's not promising. They should be building off last season's success. But at 22-17-1, they have a near identical record from last season (22-15-3). That's not growing, that's treading water.

This 8-game homestand should've been a chance to get it together. But here's something really, really wrong with the team right now. And I'm not entirely sure how the team plans on getting out of this sprial.

• AP: Preds rally for 4th straight win, 5-2 over Kings

A bold second-period rally made the win even more impressive for the Predators—and even worse for Los Angeles, which had beaten the Predators twice earlier this season.

• LA Times: Kings continue to sink at home with 5-2 loss to Predators

The Kings are imploding, their discipline splintering as rapidly as opponents are outracing their flat-footed defense. They are tripping over the expectations set out for them and by themselves, entirely too fragile mentally and unwilling or unable to make the sacrifices they gladly made last season while stamping themselves as a team to watch.

• LAKings.com: Kings lose to Predators

The Kings couldn't have asked for a much better spot. They survived a ragged first period, then held a two-goal, second-period lead at home, while playing in front of a goalie who dominated the Nashville Predators in 2010. Then, it all fell apart. Quickly.

• NHL.com: Predators extend Kings' slide with 5-2 win

After a scoreless first period, the 19-year-old Clifford controlled the rebound of Marco Sturm's shot on a 2-on-1 break, scoring his third goal of the season. Stoll then connected during a power play for his first goal in 16 games.

• Tennessean.com: Predators extend winning streak

The win clinched a winning West Coast trip for the Predators. They will finish their road trip at San Jose on Saturday.

They said it

“This whole game really has nothing to do with Nashville. It has everything to do with us. We weren’t out there playing our best, we weren’t competing, and we weren’t working hard.” – Drew Doughty, on the game.

“Home games are important. We have a good record at home. These last games, we’ve kind of let go. There’s no rhyme or reason. We need to be better, that’s the bottom line, I think. We need to have a road mentality at home.” – Dustin Brown, on the 0-4 homestand so far.

"It’s about an attitude right now, to me. We’ve got to get back into that more compete, just dig in and earn the right to win some hockey games. There’s times when we show some real good things, in recovering pucks, and then other times tonight, in all three periods, we were reaching in and just trying to recover pucks with sticks and arms. It’s impossible to do at this level. You have to have an attitude. You have to dig right in and use your body, separate the man from the puck and recover pucks and make things happen. That is, to me, where it’s coming down to, to the hard work and more of a compete attitude.” – Terry Murray, on breaking the losing streak.

"I'm starting to realize I can play at this level and play well at this level. When we were down 2-0 I realized I could be a player and that could go out there and change the game." – Colin Wilson, on stepping up.