BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore

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Orioles have fired executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette , who launched a belated rebuilding effort in July after the team failed miserably from the start.The announcement came Wednesday night, hours after manager Buck Showalter was told by the club he would not return in 2019.Baltimore went 47-115, the worst record in Orioles’ history. Both Duquette and Showalter had contracts that expired at the end of this season.Duquette joined the Orioles in November 2011 and put together a team that ended a franchise-record run of 14 straight losing seasons by reaching the playoffs in 2012. It would be the first of five successive seasons in which Baltimore finished at least .500. The Orioles won the AL East and reached the Championship Series in 2014 before earning a wild-card berth in 2016.Following a 75-87 finish last year, Baltimore struggled from outset this season. In July, Duquette tore apart the roster by swapping Machado, Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop and several other veterans for 15 minor league prospects and international signing bonus slot money.Duquette’s tenure in Baltimore featured the crafty signing of free agents Nelson Cruz and Mark Trumbo, both of whom led the majors in home runs with the Orioles. But Duquette also signed right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who went 32-42 over the length of a four-year, $50 million contract, and Baltimore is still paying the price for the seven-year, $161 million deal offered to slugger Chris Davis before the 2016 season.Davis batted .168 this season, the lowest batting average by a qualifier in major league history, and he struck out 192 times over 128 games.Duquette replaced Andy MacPhail as Baltimore’s overseer of baseball operations. Before that , the 60-year-old Massachusetts native enjoyed successful tenures with the Boston Red Sox from 1994-2001 and the Montreal Expos from 1987-93. The Red Sox reached the playoffs three times under his guidance. After season-opening losses in overtime by identical 3-2 scores, the Los Angeles Kings and the Detroit Red Wings meet Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.The Kings were beaten by the San Jose Sharks on Friday night at the Staples Center in the debut of right winger Ilya Kovalchuk. He returned to the NHL after playing in Russia for five seasons, signing a three-year, $18.75 million contract during the summer.Kovalchuk played 20:15, including 5:36 on the power play, and was credited with two shots on goal, three attempts that were blocked, and one shot that missed the net. He played on a line with center Anze Kopitar and left winger Alex Iafallo.Article continues below ...“We’ve got to be better with the tools we’ve got,” Kovalchuk told the Los Angeles Times after the game. “We’ve got to be better than what we’re at right now.”Especially on the power play, as the Kings went 0 of 5.“Sometimes we can’t even get in the zone; it’s unacceptable,” Kovalchuk said. “(Coach) John (Stevens) put us out there. He believed in our skill and our willingness to do the right things, and we have to do it to be able to win.”But Kopitar sees signs of hope.“I think we should be encouraged from this game,” he said. “Obviously there is some stuff to work on, but it’s the first game of the season , so not everything is going to be perfect.”Detroit, which was outshot 39-20 on Thursday night by the Columbus Blue Jackets at Little Caesars Arena, needs to spend more time in the offensive zone, according to coach Jeff Blashill.“Too much time in D-zone coverage, so I thought the ice got tilted too much the wrong way,” Blashill said on www.mlive.com. “When you’re in D-zone coverage, it’s hard to establish a forecheck because you’re getting it in and changing.“We got to be able to get it out smoother than that, so as a result you’re defending most of the time.”Blashill also said the Red Wings passed up too many opportunities to get shots off.“The other thing that hurt us is we had chances to shoot pucks and create chaos, which would have created a little more O-zone We didn’t shoot enough pucks,” Blashill said.Detroit featured six rookies in its opening night lineup, five of whom made their NHL debuts.It was the first NHL game for defensemen Dennis Cholowski, 20; Libor Sulak, 24; and Filip Hronek, 20; winger Michael Rasmussen , 19, and center Christoffer Ehn, 22, and the sixth NHL game for defenseman Joe Hicketts, 22.The four defensemen were particularly impressive.Cholowski scored his first NHL goal, playing on the top defense pairing with Danny DeKeyser and logging 19:51 of ice time. Sulak played 18:26, Hronek 16:03 and Hicketts 18:43.“They did good. They did really well in front of me,” said Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard, who made 38 saves. “Obviously they’re young, there’s going to be times where mistakes happen, but for the most part I thought they did a really good job.”Hronek and Hicketts were recalled from AHL Grand Rapids on Wednesday because of injuries to veteran defensemen Jonathan Ericsson (upper body) and Niklas Kronwall (unknown).Detroit plays Monday night at Anaheim. Ericsson is expected to miss both road games. The latest plan was for Kronwall to play in one of the games.