Murray postgame quotes (Nov. 5)

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…

(on the game…)
MURRAY: “That was a good game out there. With the number of power plays they had in the first period, we did a great job on the penalty kill. I know we gave up one, but the attitude was tremendous, to get in those lanes and block shots and just to really dig in. Then we carried through in the second period. The pace of the game picked up. The compete level got real heavy. Our dot-to-board game was as good as it’s been all year long, in my opinion, and I liked that. It’s the way we have to play. Unfortunately, that tying goal they got at the end, but it’s a strong play by them. Overall, I was really happy with our compete.’’

(on getting two goals after the home scoreless streak…)
MURRAY: “And then to get the third, and not allowed. It was a high stick, though. They’re good goals. They’re the kind of goals that are in a good hockey game. The puck is in transition, there’s lots of battle, lots of compete. It was a real, good solid hockey game here tonight. Those are the kinds of goals that you’re looking for. Your top guys step up and make plays. They score. Same for them. They got a couple big plays from their top guys. So I think everybody went away pretty happy tonight.’’

(on not getting enough scoring beyond the Kopitar line…)
MURRAY: “Sure. That’s been addressed many, many times in our talks with (the media). Five-on-five scoring is something that we’ve got to get to the next level. I think we’ve got the people in place to do that. We just have to start to get it done. We’ve got some depth. We’ve got three lines that are built, right now, to be able to give us some scoring. We’ve got back-end guys, with Doughty, with Johnson, with Martinez, that can shoot the puck, get up into the play. That has to evolve. That has to come along faster. But I have a little bit of concern. We’re now into the season, into November, and we haven’t got that start that we wanted, on the scoring side.’’

(on Drew Doughty perhaps not being at his usual level…)
MURRAY: “I think a lot has to do…I’ve seen this so many times, over the years, with players who, for whatever reason, miss the training camp. There’s some lag time here, to get the rust off, to get the cobwebs out, to get going into that high-level game that was out there tonight.’’

(on not falling into a roller-coaster-type season…)
MURRAY: “We’ve got to keep our eye on that, absolutely. We have a nice month of November here. We know that. We’ve talked about it in meetings. There’s some games in front of us here at home, and we have to be ready to play and get that start to the season, like we talked about, get a good start until Christmas and take a look at where we are. That’s an opportunity right now. We have to be heads up and take advantage of it.’’