Murray, on taking the next step

Question: What has to happen, from this year to next year, to get over the hump of just being a playoff team, to making some noise in the playoffs?

MURRAY: “I think the big step would be to have home-ice advantage. I think that would be a very big step. That’s a very simple way of throwing it out there, but the expectations have increased by saying that. You can’t get into that slide in January. You have to keep going. You’ve got to play like you did post-All Star, 32 games. I think we had 19 wins in 32 games, 43 points after the All-Star break. That’s being a hockey team. That’s a great hockey team right there. That’s responding to the pressure, because we were 11th coming into the pre-All Star, and then coming out of it and making it [the playoffs] with that kind of record, that is incredible. That’s the kind of game that we need to show from the start of the year. That would get you into a home-ice advantage, and now the expectations grow from there, as you get into the playoffs, clearly. You have that seventh game at home, to use it to your advantage the right way is something we have to learn how to do, mind you. We haven’t been successful in our playoffs at home, we know that. We’re very aware of it. It’s actually been very disappointing for our fans, that we haven’t put up enough wins for them, for the way they supported us here in this year’s playoffs. It was pretty amazing. So that’s a challenge that’s out there, that will be a good thought to maintain over the summer time.”