Murray talks about new lines

First, thanks to everyone for the kind words yesterday. It was good to get back to the rink today, and in a couple hours I’ll be off to Phoenix.

At practice today, the Kings skated at full strength and skated as Terry Murray said they would:

Smyth-Kopitar-Williams
Parse-Stoll-Simmonds
Frolov-Handzus-Brown
Ivanans-Richardson-Purcell (and Harrold)

Here’s what Murray said today about why he put the lines together the way he did…

MURRAY: “Having just made the change with the Handzus-Frolov-Brown line, I’m going to keep that together for a little while. I want to see the chemistry continue to come out on it. I’ve got three veteran guys that play in all situations, play against the top lines of the opposition, and I know there’s some real good offense in there. I want to see that start to happen. With Simmer on Stoll’s line, with Parse, Simmer has been playing very well, and I want to give him an opportunity there, with that Stoll line, to see if something good can happen out of it, good chemistry. He’s going to go to the net, hold the puck, make plays, and Parse has been playing pretty well. I’ll keep going with him.

“I need to see a little bit more out of Teddy. That’s why I’ve knocked him down to the line with Richie and Ivanans right now. To me, it looks like, today, that Peter Harrold will be the guy that is out of the lineup, with Purcell going there. And I’ll stay with Purcell, because he brings something special, power play, he sees the ice and makes plays. I want to get him going again. I don’t want to take him out of the lineup to try to send him any kind of a message. I just need him to pick it up to where he was in the early part of the going here.”

Murray was also asked about the rationale for asking more of a player while, at the same time, putting him in a role with less-skilled players…

MURRAY: “We’re not taking him off the power play. He’s going to stay with that. He’s going to play in special teams, and even 4-on-4. I was going to get him out there the other night in overtime, but it didn’t work out. I certainly had a plan to play him and Richie there, near the end of that overtime period. I like Teddy on the power play. I think he’s a very gifted player. He sees the ice, makes plays, and I just don’t want to take that off our special teams right now.”

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