Murray, on style of play

I figured this question/answer was worth its own post because it might generate some discussion. This is where Terry Murray talks about how he would like to see the team play, and I think a good percentage of you will like the answer.

I’ve only transcribed about 30 of the 50 minutes, so there’s plenty more to come, resuming in the morning. Here’s the last part for tonight…

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Question: Will you come in with a style of play that you want the Kings to play, or will that be determined more by what you see in training camp?

MURRAY: No, I have a style. You can’t wait and see. We’re coming in as a new coaching staff and we need to have a system, a style, a philosophy, and put it in place right from the first day of training camp. As we mentioned earlier, we want to be able to sit down with the leadership group and talk about that philosophy and that system that we want to put in place. Then we go on the ice and they’re able to set the tone of how it is with the drills. That’s important.

What’s important for me right now is, you can look at statistics and I’ve watched games, sure. I’ve watched games and I’ve watched individuals and style of play and special teams and all that. But what’s important, when you look at the numbers, is that you have to have some value on the checking side of the game. That’s what I want to bring right away. We’ve got to cut back on goals against. We’ve got to be a good team defensively. All the better teams are, and that’s the way you’re going to win. You’re going to put pressure on teams with your checking style. The players have to believe that there is true value in checking. `When you don’t have the puck, what are you going to do? How are you going to play?’ And if you want to score, you have to have the puck, so you’ve got to go get it. The value of that is something I’m going to sell right from the very beginning. And again, on the defensive side of the game we’ve got to cut down on our goals against. We’ve got to give our goalies better support, and that’s a priority for me.

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