Kings hope for blast from the past

As noted this morning, Terry Murray staged another lineup mini-shakeup this morning. Anze Kopitar is back with the linemates — Simon Gagne and Justin Williams — he started the season with, and perhaps he can get them going. Williams has gone 17 games without a goal and Gagne has gone seven. Dustin Brown is also back on left wing, alongside Jarret Stoll and Trent Hunter. The other lines have Andrei Loktionov centering Dustin Penner and Ethan Moreau, and Colin Fraser centering Kyle Clifford and Kevin Westgarth.

MURRAY: “We’ve moving some players around. Maybe moving them back to the original start would be the correct terminology by me. Putting Williams back with Kopitar and Gags. I’m going to put Brownie back on the left side. He’s so effective coming off that left side on the attack. I just want to take advantage of it right now. I go back to the end of the game against Montreal, and our shot count is not where it needs to be. The chances should be more. The net presence needs to be better, and Brownie is the one player there, with his power-forward mentality off the left side, who is very effective. So I want to take advantage of that.’’

Murray was asked for his impressions of Penner, who returned from a nine-game absence on Saturday and scored a power-play goal.

MURRAY: “I thought, with his first game in three weeks, I thought he moved well. I thought he was trying to make some plays, which he did, and ends up getting to the net on a couple occasions where he’s a big body. That’s the attitude that we need to reestablish as a team again. We’re getting away from that in the last several games. So, overall, his game was good. I just want to make sure there’s no back-off on the gas pedal here. He’s got to keep going, he’s got to keep getting better.’’