Richards boosting Kings in all areas

Mike Richards has yet to have a real “highlight’’ moment with the Kings, but the number of small, intelligent plays he makes is astoundingly high. Richards has essentially single-handedly boosted the Kings’ power play, as he has the first assist on four power-play goals this season — including Dustin Brown’s goal last night — and Richards is a key penalty-killer as well.

MURRAY: “He’s given us real good balance down the middle, there’s no question. With two guys who are No. 1 center icemen, it really means a lot to be able to come back with that second line now. It forces other teams to make a decision. He’s a great player, in the sense that he sees the ice and makes plays. You look at the play that he made on the power-play goal. A strong, strong move to take it to the net. So he brings a lot, and then at the end of the game you see he’s out on the ice protecting the lead. So I’m going to rely on him a lot.’’

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.