Murray, on practice habits
Those of you who have been to practice have no doubt noticed the five black dots that are spray-painted in front of each goal. Terry Murray explains what they're all about...
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``They're kind of a reference point, for where the players are supposed to be, taking care of `home plate' to eliminate some of the grade-one scoring chances that I saw as I watched video of last year's games. That's a priority coming into this training camp. ... The dots are a reference point, for when the puck is coming in to your defensive zone. You're coming back to what I call `home plate' in positioning. You want to be that tight. The prime scoring area is right there in front of your net, below the hash marks. That's where we have to have proper positioning, to protect and help our goaltending out. As the puck is moved to different parts of the ice, below the goal line, there's a slight adjustment for each player to make. The dots are the positions that they need to read right now, and as we move forward they will become instinctive and that will be a part of their game from this point on.''
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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.
I wonder if the league will let the Kings keep those dots during the regular season. :D
Actually, the players have the dots with them, and they bring them out onto the ice for their shifts, adjusting them accordingly. What Murray isn't telling anyone is that these are Ringo's "hole in me pocket" holes from the Sea of Holes. The idea is to push the opposing players through the holes into Pepperland.
man, I though the rink was doing something new ...curling or something... some sort of broomball rull or something... Thanks Rich!
I like the way Murray Sounds.
I don't know, but this year just feels different.
You never know, I guess,
but
I just smell
something ahead ... success, maybe?
Eh, I haven't been to the rink and seen the actual dots, but this system sounds like Crawford's "let's all collapse in front the of crease" system of last season.
Perhaps somebody with more practical knowledge can elucidate.