Kings look to avoid `ambush’

As noted a couple weeks back, the Kings have reached the point of the season in which morning skates are typically optional, but this morning, all players were on the ice. It’s not tough to extrapolate the reason. With one game remaining in this six-game leg of the Kings’ road swing, they want to make sure that the proper level of attention is brought to tonight’s game against the Islanders. After the skate, Terry Murray talked, in general, about the challenge his team faces…

MURRAY: “You’ve got to bring a good game here tonight. There’s no way you can allow yourself to be ambushed. Watching the Islanders’ last couple games, they come out and play with a lot of tempo, put a lot of pucks to the net. There’s lots of good things happening with their attitude, as far as the work ethic and trying to stay on page and make everything real important, right through to the end of the season. There’s lots of young guys here that are trying to get the eyes of (general manager) Garth Snow and trying to impress so that they’re remembered through the offseason, and get ready for next year. So we’ve got to follow this up with what we’ve been doing over the road trip. You can make it a great road trip by doing the right thing with the right kind of intensity, and be prepared to play right from the start of the game.”