Kings expecting another defensive battle

Tomorrow night, the Kings get a chance to avenge one of their two season setbacks when they host the New Jersey Devils. It was just 11 days ago when the Devils beat the Kings 2-1 in a shootout in Newark. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur hurt his shoulder that night, hasn’t played since and isn’t expected to play tomorrow night, but that doesn’t change the Kings’ mindset. In that game in Newark, the Devils played a highly effective defensive game and regularly stymied the Kings’ attempts to move the puck through the middle of the ice. Here’s what Kings winger Simon Gagne said today about the Kings’ approach to tomorrow night’s game…

GAGNE: “We have to understand that it’s going to be a tight game and it’s going to be a battle right to the end. That could be a 1-0 game against them. Sometimes, especially when you play at home, you want to do a little more offensively. You want to score more goals sometimes when you’re at home, but against a team like Jersey, it’s something you need to understand and you don’t want to get frustrated. Because that’s going to be a game where you’re not going to have those 2-on-1s, as much as you saw against other teams early in the season. That was the case against Jersey (there), and I think it’s going to be even worse because they’re on the road right now, so we need to play the same way, play our style and understand that it’s going to be a battle right to the end. It might just take one goal, like the last game against Dallas.’’

Terry Murray was asked for his thoughts on the Kings’ previous game against the Devils…

MURRAY: “Coming back from overseas, I liked the way we executed overall. It wasn’t clean all the time, but as far as the focus and the energy, the compete was good. We knew we were coming into a building that was going to play a very good game, after what they’d been through in the past year, and they did have a highly competitive game. I thought we were ready for it. I think we had some areas that we need to be a lot better at, and hopefully we can bring that side of the game tomorrow.’’