Murray, on forechecking
To wrap things up, Terry Murray talks about the importance of forechecking and also sums up some of his general thoughts about team play. He gets very detailed at one point about forechecking, neutral-zone play, etc. I hope everyone found the details of the GM breakfast helpful. Here's the last part...
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MURRAY: On the forecheck part of the game, I'll say this: I want to be an aggressive forecheck team. I want to jump on puck possession and breakouts by the opposition. I want F1 and F2 to be very aggressive, but we cannot lose F3. If we're going to lose 1 or 2, we can't lose F3, because as I was mentioning the last time I was up talking about young defensemen, if you continually lose that third forward, these young guys that we're talking about on the blue line, they will not be successful. They'll lose their confidence, the team foundation will break down and we're right back to where we're talking about, giving up too many goals at the other end. So, solid positioning, smart play. I want an aggressive group of defensemen. I want to be up on the attack. I want breakouts. I want one of the defensemen to be that fourth guy in the offensive zone, to be an option. Again, play the game the right way and make sure everything is in front of us and cutting back on the goals against.
So, in a nutshell, that's what we want. Neutral-zone system wise, again we just want to get the puck up on the offensive part, get back into the offensive zone and get on the attack. So, quick puck movement. It's going to be a north game there. What I mean by that is, in neutral-zone counters it's going to be...the defenseman who gets the puck, it's going to go right up to the forward, strong-side forward, center iceman, where it's one play. D-to-D, then north. We're not going to go with a lot of puck-possession plays, where we're going to go three or four times on the regroups. When it gets back in the neutral-zone counters, back to the top of the circle, the dot areas in your end...you want to have patience, you want to have puck possession, you want to have your forwards get back, get in a regroup counter situation, more possesion attack as we get going. The overall philosophy still comes back to solid defensive play. We have to have everybody on board and have the players thinking that that has true value in their game, in all areas, so that we can move forward in the right direction.
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Maybe its just me, but I could almost hear the excitement and vigor reading his words here. Sounds for sure like we'll see JJ get unleashed a bit as the fourth guy.
I especially like the "D-D, then north" part. We struggled here big time last season. Easier said than done, but its definately the right idea.
Rich, ALL very helpful and informative. There's nothing like a full transcription of an interview or conference. I think you sufficiently gave us enough to chew on until your one on one with Lombardi.
Training camp here we come!
How long Quisp?
This is excellent in theory, but whether or not this team is ready for the challenge outlined above is another. He sums up his philosophy at the end with "We have to have everybody on board and have the players thinking that that has true value in their game...", but I believe you need to actually have the players that can execute this schematic first. His system sounds great for when Doughty, Hickey and Teubert are ready to make the jump, but I question whether the Kings defensive unit can handle these expectations this year. It should be interesting to watch this unfold and see the defense develop as a group, I just have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of wincing and looks of exasperation on Terry Murray's gob this season. At least there is one good reason they won't have a ton of the games in HD.
Irish Pat,
You make a good point. I also question whether the current D-Corps are ready for this style of offense.
However, if you remember in earlier readings, Murray doesn't expect his entire strategy to come to fruition this season. He mentioned that this entire season will be devoted to developing the defensive side of the game. After that is ready, then he'll ramp up the offensive side, which likely includes what he's describing here.
I could be wrong, but that's just how I interpreted it.