To follow up on the previous post, while the Kings have generally preferred to have the Handzus line out against the opposing team’s top line, that’s more difficult when the home team gets the final line change. Terry Murray has said that he’s also very comfortable having the Kopitar line on the ice in that situation, and here’s what he said today about that line’s defensive play…
MURRAY: “Overall, I have liked it a lot, yeah. Again, I go back to last year and the way Kopi bought into the `let’s play without the puck’ concept. We need to understand that the `200 feet of the ice’ concept on the checking game is important, in order to take the next step as a team, and so I have every bit of confidence in that line being able to do that, especially with Kopi being that tracker coming back. His reads are excellent. He’s a big, strong guy and he does all the right stuff in our D zone, so I don’t hesitate on those kind of looks.”
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