The Kings will return to the ice tonight after four days off — well, one day off and three days of practice — and that much rest can be a mixed blessing for players. On the positive side, it allows players to rest nagging injuries and it allows coaches to have precious in-season time to work in practice. On the negative side, it takes players out of that intense, game-ready mindset, because there’s no way to completely duplicate game intensity in practice.
MURRAY: “We need to establish that attitude right now. I pulled the team together after the morning skate here and talked about it at center ice. It’s four days off. You have a tendency — it’s human nature — to back off a little bit with the overall intensity, so we need to work at our own mentality here, as we get through the afternoon, and make sure that we’re coming ready to go. High tempo, doing the right things, short shifts, keep everybody into the game right away.”
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