Murray back to looking for `bringing the work’

In the lead-up to last night’s game, Terry Murray talked about how he was pleased with Dustin Penner’s work in the previous game, Saturday against Dallas. Penner’s run of coach-pleasing play did not extend to a second game. Last night, Penner played 18-plus minutes and had four shots on goal but wasn’t really an impact player. (To be fair, hardly any Kings were impact players last night.) After his Feb. 28 trade from Edmonton to the Kings, Penner had two goals and four assists in his first seven games with the Kings. He has now gone nine consecutive games without a point. Murray was asked today about ability to adapt to the Kings since the trade…

MURRAY: “I wish it was further along. I see some hesitancy in his game, in just reading the play without the puck. As an example, the opening faceoff last night. When we lose the faceoff, our F1 on the neutral-zone forecheck is our right winger, and he jumps. So, there are still some issues that have to be corrected, and it’s repetition. That’s what you saw today on the ice, was the different looks on forecheck, breakouts, neutral-zone forechecks, just to try to get the repetitions in practice when we can, so that everybody is on page. There’s times that it’s there and other times, it’s not. The sooner the better.

“The playoffs will be here very quickly. There’s going to be some reads that are not going to be as instinctive as you would like, but in talking about this the other day, it’s about bringing the work. If you bring that, then it all works out. You get through it, and his talent, his ability will be a major contributor to our team once you get through. So, intensity and hard work, to me, is the start point, and as long as that’s there, I can live with the rest right now.”