It was the type of power-play goal that the Kings — or any team, for that matter — would like to put in a bottle and use at every opportunity. The Kings already led Colorado 4-0 when they went on the power play late in the third period. Jarret Stoll won the faceoff back to Jack Johnson. Johnson made a sharp pass to his left and Justin Williams fired a shot past Craig Anderson. The whole thing took five seconds. That’s exactly the type of “shot mentality” — one of Terry Murray’s favorite phrases — that the Kings would like to see on the power play. “We haven’t thought too much about using Wiliams on the blue line. Maybe that’s something we need to do,” Murray joked. But it’s not as much about the players as it is the mentality. Earlier in the game, the Kings’ power play broke down when they tried one too many passes…
MURRAY: “The mentality is a shot mentality that we have to have. That’s got to be a selling point every day at practice. For me, that’s the first option. I think, often, we’re looking to pass the puck into the net, making highlight-reel plays. And we have the ability to do that once in a while, but there is, inevitably, long stretches of time before you see the next one. So what you saw last night, let’s do that, with shot mentality, net presence. We’ve got Doughty and Johnson on the back end, who are those kinds of players, who can bring it to the net, and that’s what we have to sell them on.”
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