Wounded but dangerous

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The Kings are without Drew Doughty tonight, but the Phoenix Coyotes are a shorthanded bunch as well, without captain Shane Doan (suspension) and center Martin Hanzal (lower-body injury). The Coyotes are expected to go with Eric Belanger centering Scottie Upshall and Wojtek Wolski, with Kyle Turris centering Ray Whitney and Radim Vrbata, with Vernon Fiddler centering Taylor Pyatt and Lee Stempniak and with Andrew Ebbett centering either Lauri Korpikoski or Paul Bissonnette and Petr Prucha.

For Terry Murray, the emphasis will be on avoiding the types of defensive breakdowns that sometimes hurt the Kings in Wednesday night’s victory over Carolina. Phoenix’s speed has given the Kings problems in the past, although the Kings did go 3-2-1 against the Coyotes last season.

MURRAY: “I think we’re going to see the same kind of a game that we saw last night with Carolina. They’re a transition team. That’s where we put ourselves in a little bit of a situation last night, where the game was harder than it should have been because of managing the puck through the middle of the ice. There were a lot of transitions that came at us. They were flooding the ice with quick-ups, and this is the way that we’re going to see the game tonight, I believe, if we’re not managing the puck the right way.”