Unexpected return continues for Parse

A bit overlooked in the Game 5 analysis was the return of Kings winger Scott Parse, who played his first game since Nov. 15. Parse, now recovered from hip surgery, moved into a high-profile role alongside Michal Handzus and Justin Williams for Game 5 and is expected to remain there tonight. In Game 5, Parse played 10 minutes, 17 seconds — including 38 seconds of power-play time — and did not record a shot on goal but earned solid praise from Terry Murray…

MURRAY: “Parse, going in for the first time in several months, I thought he played pretty well. He showed a lot of confidence with the puck. And he has that, I guess you’d call it a little bit of that inner arrogance that you have to have as a pro athlete, to have the confidence in your own game, to play and to know exactly what it is you can do and try to do it. And I thought he stepped in and did a pretty decent job.”

Question: Is that about how many minutes you wanted to play him?

MURRAY: “I didn’t really set any kind of a number there for him in particular, but I did want to play four lines. The penalty kill obviously takes minutes away from the rotation. Possibly it could be higher, if we go through a game 5-on-5. But he didn’t have any problems on the conditioning side of things. I felt strong about that going into the game, making the decision that he would go and play, that that would not be a concern of mine, and he confirmed it. He looked good. He looked strong through the game and he brought us the offensive part of the game, some skill that I knew he could. Hopefully it can be better tomorrow.

Question: Did he come out of the game OK, physically?

MURRAY: “Through the medical staff, everything was good. No issues at all.”