What happened in the third period last night, when the Kings let a three-goal lead slip away and to rally with two late goals? In Terry Murray’s view, the Kings lost some aggression when they got the big lead, and today, Murray took some of the responsibility on himself…
MURRAY: “I thought we came out with a `let’s protect the lead’ attitude, rather than staying aggressive and keep playing the same game. I’ve got to take some of the responsibility on that. At the end of the second period, we talked about our neutral-zone forecheck. They kept pulling the puck back, deep into the dots in their circles. You don’t want to get spread out, to where they’re able to make a couple passes and generate speed through the middle of the ice and catch everyone flat-footed. So we asked our F1 (forward) to pull back a little bit, five or six feet inside of the blue line, and let more of a compact look, line-change look, come at us.
“To me, it seemed like the reaction was that, `OK, we’ve got to be cautious in all areas of the ice now.’ Now it becomes a 4-3 game, and I like what we did in the next couple shifts. We came out and really did some good things with Zeus’ line and Kopi’s line. They had good offensive-zone time and got some opportunities. But to me, that’s the area of concern, and what we addressed in our team meeting today, that our mindset has to stay with that same, `Let’s go pressure the puck’ attitude.”
the problem is Detroit runs those plays all day the low give and go – and if the fowl score 3 goals that way – thats not good news for sat- can you imagine Zetterberg-Datsyuk and Holmstrom they might each get a hat trick if we dont stop watching the puck and start taking the man down low-
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I say 2 forcheckers in at all times.They can’t score 200 feet away from your net.TM learned a valuable lessson here.Even with the lead keep attacking.
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I’m proud of TM that he owned up to the fact he screwed up to start that nasty business.
Another positive, maybe, is that the boys did exactly what he wanted. Shows they buy into what he’s sellin’ at least.
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I think anytime you get a little wake-up call (like the 3rd period was)…AND WIN you are way ahead of the game. Every team needs to be reminded of the hard work it takes to win. Sometimes riding long winnings streaks can get you to sit back and relax. Last night I’m sure got everyone’s attention and we won’t make that same mistake tomorrow against the “broken wings”.
Tomorrow I expect to see a 60 mins 100% game from our boys.
Go Kings!
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In most cases the best defense is your own offense keep pressure on their goal.
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I gotta feel good that the boys really are buying into TM and listening to what he says, unlike what Hitch was selling (yell…..yell again….yell some more) in Columbus. They tuned out. Our boys are really listening to TM maybe because he himself is owning up to mistakes he makes. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard TM say it’s on him this season.
Like TOOKIE says, how they came back shows they buy into what he’s selling. ME LIKE…..
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Of all the games in a streak, the ninth and tenth wins are the most difficult. Consistency of play shift-to-shift must be maintained. This streak has revolved around the Red Wings. One game was the 52 shot loss at home; the next was the 3-2 man-in-the-rafters come-from-behind win on the road. First game, DET was hotter than a firecracker; second game, the Kings were getting it together on the road.
Now the Kings have reached PHX in the standings, and DET remains mired at 8th-9th place. Consider this game the rubber game in the LA-det series. Getting to ten wins in a row will require taking the BentWheels and the Quacks again on the road. There are four more games to the Olympic break.
The boys have to play these 4 games one game at a time. How about a pre-Olympic prep-for-playoffs trade to help them out? Get a non-sexy 5th-6th forward or third-pair solid depth D-man, and the room will respond with a pre-break surge…
Help the Boys out, Dean!
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>Bako
I’m with you on that one! That would really jolt the boys into a longer streak and a good run into the playoffs.
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Great insight there from Murray. Thanks, Rich.
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My vote is for a veteran scorer.
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About time he realized his coaching lead to the meltdown and failure to hold the lead. He did nothing to change the momentum after goal 2. He kept rolling the 4th line out there along with Jones and the game slipped away. It was great that the team rallied back to get the win, but mistakes like that aren’t good.
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I’m thinkin’ maybe TM should have called a time out to settle things down after the first of the three Quacks goals. You could see this thing comming down the line like a freight train…..been there to many times!
Can’t complain about the result, though. My family had to leave the room after that third goal!
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Foxy adressed that issue specifically.I personally would have liked a time out(after that 2nd goal),and have stated in the past that maybe he should call a time out when he senses the game getting away from them,but I understand TM’s aproach to those situations and feel confident he made the right choice.Let the guys play through it.
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IMO I like how Murray handled the 3rd period. It reminds of Phil Jackson a little. The guy just sits the whole game like he’s a fan or something. Even when his teams getting run on he doesn’t necessarily call a timeout like all the other coaches. He wants to see how his team will pull out of it. He treats them like pros and expects them to play like pros. Murray seems to have a similar attitude towards his players. Yeah he’ll switch up lines and stuff but that’s just what coaches do. I think if the players get that sense of unspoken confidence from their coach and they know what’s expected of them and they respect the coach, it says a lot when they come out on top of that 3rd period disaster. This is the nhl and no team is just going to lay down and lose.
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>John Chang
You are 100% spot on. Getting the ship righted was just character and belief in the system, as this team has been showing lately, especially like the last 8 games or so.
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I like what John Chang had to say above about the comparison with Phil Jackson. That was my take as well.
In the post-game interview he mentioned that he didn’t want to embarrase his team with a time out.
The Kings didn’t look like they were panicking to me, just a couple of unfortunate episodes of Kings falling down at perfectly the wrong time.
Besides, can’t argue with the results.
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take another look at the 3rd period meltdown and you’ll see one of TM’s most common errors over the past 2 seasons — he sends out the 5 weakest players at their position all at the same time. It’s a perfect storm of losing momentum and control. Ivan, Moller, Harrold (as a winger), and Jones & Johnson (Johnson not the weakest, ok).
But, why does this continue to occur???
I don’t understand giving the opposition this type of opportunity to wrestle back momentum.
Not to mention, how long is TM going to humiliate Harrold by playing him as a wing when we haven’t lost a game this year with him on defense?
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