Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…
(on having the same feeling as last night…)
MURRAY: “A bad feeling. It’s a useless part of the game, the shootout, but the fans love it. For that, I like it, because the fans are excited. They’re standing up and waiting for the next shooter. It is good for the game, but boy, do I hate it.”
(on whether not getting two points felt a little tougher tonight…)
MURRAY: “Maybe a little bit. It’s a home game. You’ve outshot them two to one, we played pretty well. We had some quality scoring chances and, hey, their goaltender hasn’t play much in the last year, really, and he played well out there tonight. And they played a real slow-the-game, five guys back at their own blue line kind of a game, and took a lot of the emotion and speed out of the game. That was a good strategy by them. It was a good plan. Still, at the end of the day you feel like you should have won it because of the territorial edge. I want the players to move by the shootout though. I talked to them about that at the end of the game in the dressing room. It’s real important for them to know that we played well for two games against two real good teams, playoff teams. You’ve got to move through the shootout, come back, get on the ice and feel good about yourself.”
(on how he selects shootout players…)
MURRAY: “We practice it. We practice the shootout and we have a little contest and try to pick the guys out of the group. Jack has been a pretty consistent goal scorer in the shootouts, so we always take him as our No. 2 guy. Zeus, in the practice the other day, he came through with a pretty consistent effort on it, and he scored last night too. That part of it was pretty easy to decide. The third guy tonight was a little more difficult. We went through a bunch of guys last night and didn’t have any success with it. I figured, with Ryan Smyth having played with Raycroft in Colorado, he would know a little bit, have a little bit of an edge maybe, and he made a good stop on him.”
(on whether fatigue played a role tonight…)
MURRAY: “I don’t want to talk about it, if there is. It’s the way the NHL is. It’s the schedule, and you’ve got to play back-to-back games. I’m sure that there’s a little bit, when you have played and traveled the night before, and the other team is sitting in their hotel room watching the game on TV. There’s a little bit of an energy difference, but I could never tell that by the start of the game. We had an excellent first period, came out with the energy and the right attitude, a lot of plays at the net. At the end of the day, it was no part of the outcome of the game.”
(on whether it’s disappointing to not get two points against the shorthanded Canucks…)
MURRAY: “No. They’re NHL players. No, not at all. You adjust. When you have injuries, players step in and take advantage of their opportunities. You change your style a little bit, like they did, five guys back, really slow the game down, extra players on the ice every faceoff, TV timeout, seven guys, it delays it, takes the energy out, the emotion out of the game, takes the fans out of the game. It’s the right way to do it.”
Thanks rich for asking him on how he selects his shootout lineup. Like him i also hate the shootout.
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at least we have more than 3 shooters to choose from for the so
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Is that why we lost? Van. had extra players on the ice for the faceoffs??? seven guys?? That is what the coach is quoted. I dont know what he means?/
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Thank you as well, Rich, for asking Terry Murray how he selects the shootout shooters, I appreciate it.
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Mike, I wish we would go back to ties myself. Also, please eliminate the instigator penalty!!!
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Mike, what I mean’t by going back to ties was, overtime and no shootout.
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HEY TERRY!
ALL OF US DON’T NECESSARILY LIKE THE SHOOT OUTS!
IN FACT
SOME OF US HATE THEM!!!!
but hey … maybe it’s just me … but I think it’s a pretty damn sucky way to decide a game.
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Gotta go with everyone else here – I realize the shootout looks real nice, but quit trying to modernize the game… it’s an unbalanced way to decide a win… remember when a shootout in the last regulation game of the season caused a team that wasn’t even playing to lose their playoff spot? And yes, the instigator has got to go!
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I think what TM meant by 7 players on the ice was after TV timeouts and other stops, putting 7 guys out on the ice, just to have two skate back before the puck drops. Its a good strategy to slow the game and ruin any momentum that they Kings had generated. The Canucks did an excellent job of making that game one of the slowest, and most boring games in a while.
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Kudos, Rich, for taking the “shootout controversy” to TM and getting him to tell us (nice constructive way to do it–if that’s where the idea came from) how he selects the shootout players. Can’t argue with the logic! It’s great that you confront TM with what we find baffling, again, if that’s how it worked out.
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It was a real soccer fan’s game tonight; I think Nick Nickson described it as a “Chess Match.” Too bad it was also “Afterschool” Night! Nothing like a tight, close checking game to make lifelong fans out of impressionable children… NOT. Most of the kids in the our upper section left en masse in the middle of the third. They were bored out of their minds.
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I HATE THE SHOOTOUT AS WELL!!!!!!! WORTHLESS PART OF THE GAME!!!!!
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I’m liking Terry Murray more and more.
Last week describing describing Kopitar’s rush to the net, shouldering a DMan, Deadmarsh-style before tucking it inside the far post and behind Marty Turco, he said, “That’s a hockey-player play.”
He doesn’t think Scuderi’s hipcheck on Chimera was dirty. In fact, he thinks it was,”the hit of the game, when you go back through the start of my career. The 70s, 60s — I didn’t play in the 60s — that was the hit.”
This week when explaining his decision to go with Quick in both games of the back-to-back, he said Quick was better suited than Ersberg because “when there’s a lot of heavy going around the net, he’s able to deal with that.”
Now we learn he hates the shootout. And we learn he doesn’t want to talk about fatigue and back-to-backs: “It’s the schedule, and you’ve got to play back-to-back games.”
Okay, but he must be frustrated that the Canucks basically turtled last night, right?
“You change your style a little bit, like they did, five guys back, really slow the game down, extra players on the ice every faceoff, TV timeout, seven guys, it delays it, takes the energy out, the emotion out of the game, takes the fans out of the game. It’s the right way to do it.”
That’s a hockey-coach coaching. When the heavy is going around the rink like that, he’s able to deal with it.
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Would someone please point out to Terry Murray that the points from the “worthless part of the game” count just as much as those in the worthwhile part of the game…
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Where was Kopitar in the shootout? Just because he shanked one the night before doesnt mean he should be punished for it. Kopitar is the leading scorer on the team, he MUST be part of the shootout every single time.
Other than that, good game by the Kings against a very good team.
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I was going to say the same thing PSP…although I do agree with him…I can’t stand the shootouts, but if it gets my girlfriend to watch games with me (she loves them), so be it.
But there you have it…the shootouts are for those who don’t love the game the way most of us do.
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Taking a team sport and turning it into an individual contest trivializes the first 60 minutes of play. Both teams bust their arses only to have the contest decide on a staring contest. The first one to blink between the goalie and the shooter almost always looses.
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Oh and one more point. Practicing a the shoot out against your own goalies is not a good indicator of who is going to do well against your opponents goalie. Your three player with the best stick handling skills coupled with fast hands is who yo should go with.
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I love shootouts. I can’t always watch every minute of every game, but if the TV’s on and a shoot out starts, I find the time to watch. It’s high stakes and a guaranteed highlight.
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Exactly, Slapshot! Jonathan Quick and Erik Ersberg are not Evgeni Nabokov nor are they Andrew Raycroft! Every goalie like every player plays differently and has their own set of strengths and weaknesses.
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The shootouts are worthless like government-issued non-gold-backed funny money is worthless. There’s no actual WORTH to it, but you get stuff for it anyway.
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That needs to be done, PSP!!!
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Very good, Kenneth.
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Handzus?
Really?
I mean I saw him score the night before but I was surprised then too.
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