What Williams brings

After missing five games with that mysterious lower-body injury, Justin Williams returned Monday and had one goal, giving him 10 points in 10 games this season. The question with Williams — and it’s a big one — is whether he can stay healthy, but a point-per-game performer is nothing to sneeze at, and it’s telling that Anze Kopitar frequently references Williams when talking about his improved numbers this season. Today, Terry Murray talked about what Williams brings, beyond simply points.

MURRAY: “Puck possession. He brings a nice skill level with holding onto the puck, making plays, seeing the ice, scanning the ice, finding people in open situations so that the offensive-zone play can continue. That, to me, is where you can sometimes look at the statistics too much and say, `He hasn’t scored in a few games.’ But how is the offensive-zone time? What kind of puck possession? What kind of plays are being made? Are the opportunities being generated by one player in particular? That’s what I feel I do over the course of the season. I don’t have a knee-jerk reaction with a player on a line and say, `I’ve got to make a change here because I haven’t seen any statistics, on paper, over the last four or five games.”’