Learning to win

There are (at least) two ways to look at the Kings’ last two victories. They got four points out of a tough, tough situation — a game in San Jose, followed by a game, the next night, against a red-hot team — but they also gave up two-goal leads in each game and had to battle back to win in overtime/shootout.

Putting aside the question of whether those opposition “bonus points” might come back to haunt the Kings at some point, Terry Murray was asked the other day about his team’s ability to come back, after losing a lead, and get two points against good teams. Specifically, Murray was asked if last season’s Kings would have been able to pull out a victory like the Kings got against San Jose on Wednesday…

MURRAY: “I don’t think we would have been in that situation last year, to even crumble. I think we would have been behind from the beginning. And that’s not…I don’t think I’m saying anything bad there. It’s a maturity process.

“Your mentality going in, as a player, when you’re a young group of guys and when you’re playing premier teams in the game, there’s an intimidation factor that is always in the back of your mind. You try to feel your way around the game. You try to play around it, hoping maybe that something good can happen. You’re just waiting for it, instead of initiating and having the attitude that, `We’re going out to win this game, right from the very beginning.’ That’s a learned skill. That’s a process in itself.”