Shorter rope for Purcell

Terry Murray had some positive words yesterday for Teddy Purcell’s recent play, but at the end of them, he expressed the bottom-line need for Purcell to generate goals. Today, Murray elaborated, when asked how long Purcell’s “rope” would be — in terms of minutes on the second line and the power play — if he didn’t start scoring soon. Purcell has gone 23 games without a goal…

MURRAY: “The rope is getting shorter every game. I’m not going to mislead you on that. You’ve got to have production. That’s a big part of the m.o. that he needs to bring to our team. When you go through an extended period of time of not getting results, there has to be some consequence. Cutting back on special teams, power play, absolutely. That has to be the first move.

“Then, after that, we’ve got to get some people healthy in order for some other moves to be made. But I’ve also been using Richardson up on the left side in certain situations, to give that checking look maybe, and take Purcell off the line. That’s still an option for me, any time during the game. I definitely need some numbers to start to be put up on the board.”

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