Power-play time not plentiful of late

It will be interesting to see how the special-teams game plays out tonight. Anaheim enters the game with the NHL’s fourth-best power-play, in terms of success rate, and is ranked 22nd in penalty-kill percentage, but the Kings have had only one power play in each of their last two games. Of course, power-play chances are largely at the whim of the officials, but to some extent, players can increase their chances of drawing penalties by going to tough areas of the ice and putting opponents in difficult situations. After today’s skate, I asked Murray about the recent power-play paucity and if the Kings could do anything to improve it…

MURRAY: “I’m not sure about that. I think we’ve been working very hard. When you have teams that are intense, on the puck and working and moving their feet, usually the end result is that there are very few penalties and power plays, because of the focus put on the importance of the game. The officiating has been really good. They definitely have awareness to what’s at stake for every team. I watch a game last night, Vancouver and Phoenix, and it ends up at the end of the game where you say, `Gee.’ But it’s the right call. They end up with a five-minute power play and score two big goals and end up winning the game. We just have to keep skating. Whenever we’ve been playing our game, the power plays fall where they may. We deserve them sometimes, because of the hard work and moving our feet and doing the right things.”