Fire away!

“Shot mentality” is one of Terry Murray’s most-used phrases — it has a slight lead over “hard and heavy” this season — and it’s easy to see why Murray feels the need to stress it. The Kings had a solid stretch, in terms of shot totals, earlier this month — they had at least 34 shots in four consecutive games — but the Kings totaled only 25 shots in Wednesday’s loss to Montreal and 22 shots in Saturday’s loss to Chicago. Murray was asked what he could do, beyond simply stressing the point verbally, to reinforce the “shot mentality” with his players.

MURRAY: “Well, you’ve got to stay with that kind of approach. You’re talking about it. You’re reviewing the game, showing the video of opportunities that are missed, or attempts that are getting blocked. And you run through practice, putting those kind of game situations in there, like we did today with the 2-on-1s, 3-on-2s. You’re looking to get pucks to the net from the top and staying with it, competing and battling for those looks pucks and finding other opportunities. You do it enough, the fire will start. The wood is a little wet right now, but the fire will start.”