Game 63: Red Wings 7, Kings 4

• To check out the Hockeywood Dailies from this game, click here...

Well, that happened.

The Kings generated positive headlines Monday afternoon, acquiring winger Dustin Penner from the Edmonton Oilers in one of the few trades on trade day.

A few hours later, they turned in a diappointing performance against one of the best... I mean BEST team in the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings.

It was a match-up worthy of a national broadcast, but the game itself was quite brutal to watch. I found myself flipping over the MTV to watch Snooki whore it up on Jersey Shore rather than watch the more-experienced Wings hammer the crap out of the Kings, who formerly had a three-game win streak.

There really is no key to why the Kings lost, more like an entire high school janitor's super-sized keychain. Poor faceoffs, sloppy defense, atrocious goaltending, exposed penalty kill... if it wasn't for the three late goals in garbage time in the third period, this loss would have a worse aftertaste.

This is what you call a yardstick game, one that one measures a team's strengths against. All it measured was the Kings' ability to get manhandled. The Kings' stellar goals against and solid penalty kill should have been a better match for Detroit's top-ranked scoring machine.

Maybe help will be coming, in the form of Penner, a solid left winger who now gives the Kings five legitimate 20-goal scorers. But what happens if Penner skate into the lineup and fails to produce? Will the fans be burning Dean Lombardi in effigy?

I hope not. The move does make the Kings a better team, and they deserve to get the winger in the lineup for a few games. While blowouts like this can put a damper on a stretch drive, it's also needed.

To paraphrase the Macho Man Randy Savage: Before can soar with the eagles, you have to slither with the snakes. By getting kicked in the face by the biggest bully on the beach, hopefully it'll add a little fire to their belly. Some say they don't want to meet the Wings in the playoffs, I say: Bring. It. ON.

• AP: Miller scores twice, Red Wings blast Kings 7-4

A few hours after acquiring goal-scoring forward Dustin Penner in a trade with Edmonton, the Kings put on their worst performance in over a month.

• LA Times: Kings get a lesson in Stanley Cup readiness, losing to Red Wings, 7-4

The Red Wings scored soft goals and ones for the news-at-11 highlights. They scored power-play goals and a short-handed one. Heck, Drew Miller, who had four goals in his previous 54 games, scored two, and the Red Wings continued to chase Vancouver for the Western Conference's best record.

• LAKings.com: Kings dropped by Detroit, 7-4

Every team is allowed an occasional clunker, but the Kings didn't take this one lightly. Given a chance for a statement win against one of the NHL's top teams, and a chance to move up to fourth place in the Western Conference, the Kings instead fell to sixth.

• NHL.com: Wings cruise to sixth straight road win 

Los Angeles generated 25 shots in the first two periods, but couldn't connect. Detroit went up 4-1 with 41.2 seconds left in the second period when Datsyuk collected a puck at the blue line, skated in unimpeded and fired an expertly placed shot over Quick's glove for his 19th goal.

They said it

"Every mistake, they're going to score," Handzus said of the Wings. "We made mistakes that we shouldn't have. It's our mental errors. I think we need to clean that up a little bit. Mistakes against great teams, they're going to cost you." – Michal Handzus, on the breakdown Monday night.

“If anything, we’ve just got to forget this game. We’re definitely pissed off about this game. We’ve got to learn from this. Their first two goals are as a result of our turnovers. So you live and learn, and at this time of year, we’ve got to find a way to get back.” – Dustin Brown, on the game.

“No, there’s no reason to. First of all, you don’t want to get embarrassed. That’s the biggest thing. They put seven goals up on us. We made it a little bit more respectable at the end, but you don’t want to get embarrassed. They’re not going to stop playing so we can’t either.” – Jack Johnson, on not giving up in the third period.

“Well it’s something you’re supposed to do. It’s something that you can’t control; the game is over. You have to learn from your mistakes. We weren’t good enough tonight. We can’t win the game tomorrow. The game is over, just have to move on. We’ve been playing really well lately. Personally, I did think that we played really well at the beginning half of the game.” – Jonathan Quick, on moving on to the next game.

"You’ve got to have your goaltender on top of his game anytime you play Detroit, and he had a tough game, a real tough game here today. So we’ll absorb this loss and hopefully we can bounce back and get ready to go against Phoenix.” – Terry Murray, on a rare poor effort from Quick.