"The faces change. The scoreboard doesn't.

It was one game, the first with Olli Jokinen in the lineup, and thus the attempt to draw any far-reaching conclusions regarding the center's impact on the Rangers would be nonsensical.

Still, the Blueshirts' inability to produce offense persisted here in last night's 2-1 loss to the Kings in which Henrik Lundqvist, back after missing two games with the flu, lost his fifth straight, yielding a two-on-one shorthanded goal to Anze Kopitar at 16:43 of the second when the Rangers had five forwards on the power play before being beaten from point-blank range by Ryan Smyth at 11:14 of the third.

As usual, Marian Gaborik was the Rangers' offense, getting the team's lone goal at the 17:23 mark of the third by driving to the net for a deflection. Gaborik, fourth in the NHL with 34 goals, has scored five of the team's last six goals.

Jokinen provided a physical presence between Gaborik and Vinny Prospal, giving the first unit a down low presence off the cycle. He had four shots in 20:34 and worked the power-play point as he has through most of his career, but was unable to spark the moribund unit that went 0-for-4 and was minus-one."