Postgame quotes from Kings coach Terry Murray…
(on his game thoughts…)
MURRAY: “We looked a little road-weary at the end of the first, the last 10 minutes of the first period. Very good second, and it was exactly what we had to have. I thought we brought the puck up the ice and got into the offensive zone consistently and got some momentum going. We scored a power-play goal, and then what a shift by the Kopitar line. Just an outstanding shift, and to finish it off with a great goal, it was exactly what the doctor ordered.’’
(on the second period…)
MURRAY: “The whole period. Everybody came out doing the right stuff in the second period. There was no doubt, no hesitation about what we wanted to get done through the middle of the ice. All four lines were contributing, and we needed that. With this being the sixth road game, we needed everybody tonight.’’
(on the long road trip…)
MURRAY: “I kind of liked this long road trip early in the season. I think it’s good for our team. We’re young, we’ve got some new players, and it kind of gets you out there isolated. It’s, `The cavalry is not coming, you guys. You’ve got to do it on your own.’ It’s a nice team bonding time and learning how to dig in for each other.’’
(on ending the trip with a win…)
MURRAY: “Yeah, we feel it’s huge for us. At the end of the day, we were .500 on the road trip. We always used to say, years ago, it’s a good trip if you can do that. So we’re going back now to get settled in before the next long trip. We have five games coming up not too far down the road.’’
(on whether he thinks the team was motivated by Frolov being scratched…)
MURRAY: “I hope so. I hope that the team understands that everything we do, as coaches, is for the team only. There’s nothing personal. I like Fro a lot. He played great for me there last year. He scored 33 goals. It’s just, I did it for the team. And any time you make a change in your lineup, whether it’s a fourth-line guy or a top-line player or a defenseman, you’re only doing it for the team. There needs to be a message that’s taken, for everybody.’’
(on the team’s health now…)
MURRAY: “You know, we turned the corner yesterday, with all the flu. We probably had a dozen guys that were not doing very well. Then we started to turn around noon. I had a conversation with our medical trainer and he had contacted everybody and he said that he was starting to feel like it was heading in the right direction. Everybody was available tonight.’’
actually 32…but if you want to give him extra credit…(wow!)…maybe fro will consider it an olive branch…
something not fro related for a moment…:
the team played well and won a game they HAD to win…not because of anything other than the fact that this team is a capable team…(yes…w/fro and his “a”…sorry…”A” GAME)…and even though there are remnants of the ol’ kings that seem to be hard to shake off, you can’t help but notice that we have the top line in the nhl…we have a burgeoning group of young defensemen that are turning heads…we have a goaltender on the verge of being anointed our net savior…yes…there are things that need to improve on …(do we have a fourth-line…??? no really…do we…???)…pk, checking, grit, etc….
but if ryan smyth doesn’t look like the 10 game co-mvp (can’t deny a.o.’s greatness) of the league, who else does…?
let’s hope pour captain is right…
things settle down and frolov settles up and delivers…
maybe this is the storm before the calm….
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typos…sorry…!
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Bottom line here is that the Kings have 10 points after the first 9 games. That puts them on a pace to finish with with 90-95 points, which may not be good enough to make the playoffs, but at least it will get them close.
The kicker, of course, is that they’ve played twice as many road games as home games, so they’ve actually gotten that 5-4 record at a bit of a disadvantage. As Quisp pointed out in a previous thread, contrast that to last season, when they started out playing almost all home games and were break even at best.
As for benching Fro, I was out of town and didn’t see much of the three losses, so I don’t know how badly he played. But Murray is right about the need to establish a mindset, a team culture, that it’s not okay to flake out and make bad plays even if you’re a big goal scorer.
And if you’re going to do something drastic like this to get everyone’s attention, the place to do it is on the road, where everyone is focused on the hockey. And the time to do it is early in the season, to set a more positive tone for the bulk of the season (as opposed to waiting until it’s too late to have much effect on the season) — and so that if Fro doesn’t respond the right way, DL will have plenty of time before the deadline to move him.
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Things are getting better, the team is coming back home, players are getting healthy, we battled through some adversity by playing a strong game lastnight. This was a good learning experience.
By the way, all of the negativity, I blame everything on the Flu. When that thing is lurking around it changes the entire mood.
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Murray needs to clear up this dispute he has with Frolov. Otherwise no NHL team will hire him after he gets fired from the kings. They’ll think he has a problem getting along with better skilled players.
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