Showing more fight?

Given the one fight, two misconduct penalties and the four roughing penalties, it certainly looked, on the stat sheet, as though the Kings responded to Dion Phaneuf’s early hit on Anze Kopitar. But did coach Terry Murray see the type of reaction he wanted from his team, not just in terms of aggression? It seems so, as Murray said this morning…

MURRAY: “Last year, if that hit happens, we’re pushed out of the game. I’ll repeat what I said in there. I said it last year, after our first game in there [Calgary]. We were in the press conference after, with the media. We had a game in Edmonton the next night, and the question was, `What do you need to do to get ready for the game tomorrow?’ I said, `Get the hell out of Calgary.’ Because we were not there. We were pushed out and we did not compete at a high enough level.

“But I really liked our response last night. Competitively, we were right there with them, and that carried over from the previous game. The third period of the previous game was excellent. I really feel like we’ve taken a huge step in that part of the game, the emotional side, mental side of it.”