Purcell `playing well'

Purcell Watch ’09 continues, as Teddy Purcell has now gone 23 consecutive games without a goal (after scoring two in his first three games). Purcell also went all of November without a point, as he hasn’t had an assist in any of his last 12 games. Whether he’s snake-bitten or simply not working smart/hard enough, it’s no secret that, as long as Purcell is going to be a top-six forward, those droughts can’t continue. Yet, Terry Murray had some surprising praise for Purcell this morning, when asked to assess his recent play. Something tells me there won’t be unanimous agreement with Murray…

MURRAY: “Teddy is playing well, in his game. Outside of having some results in the goal-scoring department, his overall game is pretty good. He’s coming up with a lot of pucks in the offensive zone, along the boards. He’s working hard at doing the right things in that area. His play on the power play is pretty good, especially last night. I liked a lot of the plays that he did off the side boards.

“Still, at the end of the day, he needs to contribute. We need some secondary scoring, and he’s a big part of that. There’s a need for it, from him. I don’t want to take any of the pressure off him. It’s a good kind of responsibility, a good kind of pressure, to have to have, to go into each game knowing that this is what you’ve got to do for the team in order to stay in a high line and take some big minutes, important minutes. … We need a few guys to break out, on the offensive side of things.”