Ready or not?

The Kings, collectively, don’t have much of a poker face. Much has been made — and rightfully so — about their slow starts in some games, and it’s usually pretty evident, within the first handful of shifts, whether the Kings have come to play in the first period or not.

This morning, I asked Terry Murray whether, as a coach, there were certain things that jumped out at him, early indicators that his team was on track for a fast or slow start…

MURRAY: “It goes through the first 10 minutes of the game. We talk about it all the time, in our pregame talks, about the importance of it, of doing things the right way and getting our game set up. If we’re not passing the puck properly, hard, on the tape, mishandling pucks and turning them over in the middle of the ice, then that is the first read that I’ll look for. You start having starts and stops, between the offensive blue line and your own goal line, and it’s hard thing to stop sometimes. You have to address it immediately on the bench. It’s sometimes tough to get everybody on the same page.

“So the importance of going out and getting it done right away is paramount, and certainly tonight against Chicago. That’s a great transition team. I know they have a couple of guys, important players, that might not be in the lineup, but they’re a great transition team, so we really have to make sure we’re doing the right thing there.”