Last night’s game

After today’s morning skate, Terry Murray shared some of his thoughts on last night’s 4-2 victory by the Kings over the Colorado Avalanche. Murray talks about the game in general and a few players…

(on the game…)
MURRAY: “I thought, in the early going, that we were feeling the game out. We had some players playing their first NHL exhibition game ever, and still quite a few young guys, so it was a process of `how is it going to go?’ A little nervous, with all of us there watching closely, management there watching, and the fact that you’re in an NHL building with NHL fans there watching the game. It started off a little tentative, and as the game got going, I thought everybody settled in and we became a good team. We were skating, we were carrying the puck, we were playing with a lot of confidence, looking to make plays. I think the shot total shows that we were on top of it pretty good, and at the end of the day I was very pleased with how everyone played.”

(on Jonathan Bernier…)
MURRAY: “Bernier was real good. He’s a goalie that is very confident. You can see that in situations where the puck is dumped into the zone and it does come to him, and he’s looking to set it up for the defenseman, make a little play, find a winger. Several times, he found the center iceman on breakout passes. So he’s a very confident guy. He has great awareness on the ice, to obviously make those kinds of looks. At the same time, a couple of big saves later in the game.”

(on Justin Williams…)
MURRAY: “He played a little over 20 minutes, if I’m correct, and played well. He was on top of it. He was quick to the puck. He was strong with it and made plays. The line was pretty effective, with Stoll, but in particular with Willie, I thought his response to the workload was tremendous.”

(on Davis Drewiske…)
MURRAY: “Drewiske, his game got better as we got into the game. He went through that last part of the season last year, a little bit low in confidence. I thought he played with that as the game got going, and again, his game improved as we got to the latter part of it.”