Have a seat…

Most of the Kings didn’t skate Sunday morning, but they didn’t all get a free day. Many of them ended up in Terry Murray’s office for a little chat. After yesterday’s game, Murray had said he intended to talk to Anze Kopitar about his game, and he did (see below), but Murray said several other players also got the call, “about how everyone is doing, how they’re feeling, some feedback on what I’m seeing in the last several games, bringing awareness to good things and stuff that needs to be refocused.”

Kopitar’s goal-less streak extended to 12 games after Saturday, and I asked Murray if anything productive came from today’s meeting with Kopitar…

MURRAY: “Well, we’ll find out. We talked about a few things. I know there’s a sense that there’s a need to get some results and a need to be better, obviously, in that area, the offensive part of it. We’re a team that relied on him, and looked to him, in the early part, and he really came through for us. Inevitably, when there’s a high level of performance, there’s going to be a cycle where you’re going to start to drop off a bit. I’m hoping that it starts to get back on the climb again real soon.

Also, I asked Murray what, simply from watching the games, he saw in Kopitar’s play that he thinks needs to be corrected…

MURRAY: “There are a few things that are different. The one thing I can share with you, that I think he needs to bring a big focus to, is to shorten things up, get into the habit again of high-intensity, shorter shifts, to regain that flow in your game. I think that sometimes — and I’m not necessarily saying this was part of the conversation — in general, players feel that they need to stay longer, do more, be great, `I’ve got to get it done now, this shift,’ and the attitude with that is, it usually snowballs the other way on you. Simplify, get very focused, keep the shifts short in most every situation, and it starts to come that way.”

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