Penalty kill takes a positive step

The Kings took a positive step Tuesday when they went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill. That ended an eight-game stretch in which the Kings allowed at least one power-play goal in each game, and allowed a total of 10 in the eight games. Overall, the Kings rank 14th in the NHL in penalty-kill percentage, at 82.6. That’s down from last season’s 85.5, which ranked them fourth in the league. Granted, last night’s success game against St. Louis, which has been the least-effective team in the NHL this season on the power play, but Terry Murray was nonetheless pleased with the effort of his penalty-killers.

MURRAY: “All that is is an attitude. Structurally, system-wise, we’re in pretty good shape almost every night. We break everything down, obviously, into the small parts of the game. When you go back over the last three or four games, the goals that have been scored by the opponent, on our penalty kill, have been the result of us having the puck and not clearing it at the right time, or jumping on a loose puck or a rebound. We’re just not real alert, and you get into a little but of a lull for a few games. I thought, in last night’s game, there was some focus brought to it earlier in the day, and the guys were sharp. They executed properly and they were anticipating plays and clearing pucks whenever they were there.’’

In general, things have been better on the power play, and the Kings got a big game-tying goal on the power play last night, but they also didn’t generate much else. The Kings went 1-for-6 on the power play and totaled five shots on goal in 10 minutes, 54 seconds, of power-play time.

MURRAY: “That’s the big thing right there. You don’t have to go any further with it. We were passing up a lot of those opportunities to get pucks to the net. And it doesn’t have to be that big wind-up slap shot. It’s great to get a wrist shot through that first layer and now create some chaos in front of the net. I think that the over-passing attitude is something that’s still prevalent with our hockey club, in all situations, and it shows big-time on the power play.’’