Murray explains choices on defense

As noted earlier, the Kings will go with defensive pairs of Johnson-Doughty, Mitchell-Voynov and Scuderi-Greene. It’s a reunion for Mitchell and Voynov, who played together for five games in October when Doughty was injured, and also for a bit in the preseason. It’s also a reunion for Doughty and Johnson. At times over the past three years, they have played together in even-strength situations but have never stayed together for long. They have, at times, had success as the blue-line pair on the power play, so that’s the look that Terry Murray will hope to duplicate, starting tomorrow.

MURRAY: “We’re going to put Voynov back with Mitchell, where he played when he was up earlier in the year. I think they played well, they felt very comfortable together. … We’ve used (Doughty and Johnson together) on the power play, going back a couple years, and they’ve played very, very well together. They’re coming of age, I think, to play hard for each other. There’s always a time, I think, early in a career when you want to try to do a lot of stuff out there, but right now it’s about the team and about a D pairing being very good, playing big minutes, playing important, critical situations and getting the job done. All four of those guys that we’re talking about (including Mitchell and Voynov) are mobile. They pass the puck and see the ice. Ideally, you want to get the puck going as quickly as possible and have those guys joining as part of the attack and helping on that secondary part of the scoring.”

Question: With back-to-back games against the Ducks, does the opponent factor into that at all, when you’re choosing your pairs?

MURRAY: “No, not at all. I think it’s just a comfort for the Voynov-Mitchell pair, the fact that they played a bunch of game together and complemented each other. It’s just an easy, in my opinion, an easy move for me to make, to put them back together.”

Voynov got the call-up from the AHL yesterday after the Kings put Alec Martinez on injured reserve. Martinez went hard, shoulder-first, into the boards in Saturday’s game, and wasn’t on the ice for practice yesterday or today.

MURRAY: “Unfortunately for Marty, we’ll give him a little time to get rehabbed and get back in the lineup. I was very surprised that he came back and played the other night. He really showed me a lot of character. He sucked up quite a bit of discomfort to come back and play and score a huge goal.”

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