Kings trimmed by Canadiens, 2-1

Jarret Stoll didn’t have to delve deeply into the memory bank for a tutorial on Slashing 101, merely needing a few minutes of rewind to uncover some inconsistencies.

Which is why his emotion was visible — even in the upper reaches of Staples Center — over a non-call late in Montreal’s 2-1 win against the Kings on Saturday afternoon.

Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban’s slash of Stoll’s stick with about 20 seconds remaining went un-penalized and, apparently, unheeded by the referees with the Kings pressing for the tying goal.

No wonder Kings center Stoll seconded that emotion in the dressing room after their first loss in three games.

“It’s a penalty in any other game, any month this year,” Stoll said. “I’ll watch what I say, but there’s two refs out there. They’ve got to make that call.”

One call, or in this case, a non-call, does not tell the complete story in the Kings’ first game without two injured key figures, center Mike Richards and defenseman Willie Mitchell.

Not when the offensively challenged Kings scored just once, their young defensemen shied away from taking shots, and the team went into snooze mode for big stretches of the second and third periods.

The lone Kings goal came from the newly healthy left wing Dustin Penner, a redirection, on the power play. It was his first goal of the season and first since March 13. Andrei Kostitsyn’s one-time blast off a slick give-and-go was the game winner for Montreal, coming at 10 minutes 48 seconds of the second period to make it 2-0 for the Canadiens before Penner scored 3:02 later.

But the Subban moment was a flash point, especially in light of Stoll’s previous chat with one of the referees.

“I had a conversation earlier in the game about it, about a slash that I had,” Stoll said. “And I didn’t break the guy’s stick. He tells me, straight out, ‘If his stick breaks, that’s a penalty.’ I said, ‘I know, that’s the way you guys call it all year.’ Whatever.

“It is what it is. It’s tough we didn’t get that break and that call.”

Subban, for his part, said a teammate already had stepped on Stoll’s stick and the stick broke when he put his stick down, trying to get the puck.

Said Kings Coach Terry Murray: “That was not the game. There were a lot of opportunities in the first period with the power plays we had, the five-on-three. Those are missed opportunities. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t score on it. We just didn’t get enough traffic at the net. [Carey] Price saw a lot of those pucks.”

Murray spoke about the reluctance of his players to shoot.

“I’m looking at these players and we’re talking about it every day in practice,” he said. “Every game it’s a statement, a message that’s been consistent from the first day, putting pucks to the net…. This is where it needs to get better. We end up with six shots on net in the third period in the critical time in a 2-1 game.”

The absence of Richards, who is on injured reserve because of a suspected concussion, was always going to loom large for the Kings. Not only is Richards the team’s leader in goals scored (11), but he is always a major short-handed threat.

Speaking of penalty killing, the Kings finally allowed a power-play goal, giving up one in the first period when Tomas Plekanec scored on a rebound with 1:21 remaining. The Kings had killed 24 straight penalties.

Etc.

Forward Scott Parse, as expected, underwent hip surgery, the Kings said. It is expected he will be out for about four months. Parse had two goals in nine games this season and had been out of the lineup since Nov. 8.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

twitter.com/reallisa