Murray talks defense, PP

The big winner of the day, other than Matt Greene, is Peter Harrold, who played well enough in Thursday’s loss to Phoenix to earn another game tonight. Terry Murray chose to keep Harrold in the lineup over Jake Muzzin in part, as Murray says below, because of the experience factor, but Murray is also betting that Harrold can contribute on the power play as well…

MURRAY: “That gives us six veteran defensemen in the lineup here tonight. Greene is very excited. He’s been chomping at the old bit for a couple games, and he’s really looking forward to playing a game.”

Murray said he wouldn’t have any hesitation in terms of giving Greene a full complement of minutes. Greene average 17:29 of ice time in 75 games last season.

MURRAY: “I’ve always felt that when a player is cleared to play, he can get himself going, and he will play at a pretty high level and play significant minutes, unless I’m told otherwise by the trainer. It’s time to go. Heck, he’s been skating for a month and competing in the practices and feeling really good. To me, after a conversation with him, it’s not a matter of game conditioning. He feels confident, he feels good, he doesn’t have any hesitation in answering the right way whenever I’m asking him questions. He will play and we’ll get him going.”

Speaking of the power play — the league’s least efficient, heading into tonight — Harrold will once again play a role there. He took a few shifts on the second power-play unit on Thursday and almost certainly will do so again tonight. Murray talked about what the power play needs to do, in general, to get going after a 1-for-22 start.

MURRAY: “Muzzin has been on the power play from the start, on that second group, and I think he has done a very good job as a young guy, six months removed from junior hockey. But with Harrold, he’s a veteran player who is pretty effective with the puck. We see it in practices and we saw it in the game. He has a shot mentality. He’s going to get pucks to the net. And that’s where it’s going to have to happen from. We get a little — when things are not going well on the power play — you try to complicated things with too many passes and forcing too much to happen from down low. That’s where it needs to be good recovery, get it simple, get it back up to the top and start firing pucks at the net. That’s where your confidence will come from.”