A little too much time on ice

The Kings, it seems, can’t wait to get on the ice, and that’s not a good thing. Five times in their last 10 games, the Kings have been penalized for having too many men on the ice. Terry Murray said he counted seven such penalties this season (I could find only six) and it seems to be coming a recent trend. It happened twice in the Dec. 2 home game against Florida and has happened twice on this road trip, at St. Louis and at Chicago.

“I’m looking at it league-wide, and it’s up around the league. You know what, though? A couple games ago, we had a too many men on the ice. I’ve watched this thing over and over, and our man, his toes are against the dasher boards. It’s the five-foot rule. It was Williams, and his skates were actually touching the boards. The gate is open and he’s coming off, and it’s a call. That was at home. Last night, we deserved it. Last night, we had Martinez coming to the bench, and he got to the bench and then the play came, on a bit of a transition, and he backed away and his man came on. We had another one, with Ponikarovsky, that didn’t get called, with about four minutes left in the second period. He was probably at the offside dot, at our defensemen’s gate. Our player was coming, came to the bench and then, at the last second, thought he’d go for one more offensive play.

“It’s an area that’s got to get cleaned up. Part of it, I think, is that the young guys, in the American Hockey League you can probably get away with 15 feet, and never get called. You’ve got one referee, although I know the linesman can make the call. It has happened to the younger guys several times for us.”

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