Much more from Murray
Here is Terry Murray's complete interview with reporters after the morning skate.
Ersberg looks OK
He'll play today. He played good against Anaheim. Very good. I talked to both goaltenders yesterday, and he deserved another opportunity to get in there and play. He looked comfortable. He was composed. He was under control. He absorbed a lot of pucks that came to the net.
Does Ersberg has a calming effect?
He is a very composed guy, and the thing is, he brings the puck to him. There's lots of pucks sometimes find a way to bounce off goaltenders. He has the ability and skill to be able to absorb a lot of pucks and set it up for the defensemen or set it up for a forward coming back or get a faceoff. That is the kind of attitude and calmness he brings to the team. There's seldom second and third opportunities, and that's a good thing for any team.
What do you expect from Florida?
The Florida Panthers are going to play a hard game. They're going to come with a checking mentality. They have a good coaching staff in place. The attitude they have in reading some articles is again shutting things down in the defensive part of the game. They have a goaltender that has played well for them in any given game. We're going to have to play the right way in the offensive part of things in order to get some scoring opportunities. Play with a shot mentality, play everything off the net. Get their defensemen turning around and facing their goaltender more often than we've been doing over the last couple of games. I think that levels the playing field. It takes the organization out of the D-zone play. Once we start to get that on a consistent basis, we'll start to get the pucks in the net, not just hitting sticks and shin pads and skates.
On the necessity to end the five-game winless streak
Absolutely. Very important, I believe to get some wins under our belt and take advantage of this homestand. Playing games at home this time of year is an opportunity to put some points on the board and develop that team chemistry and confidence in your game. We're close. I feel we've played some good games. The Vancouver game, it seems like we lost a little bit of energy in the second and third periods but overall we played well enough to win some games and we have to keep building on that. From the growth side of things, it's very important for a young hockey team that we find a way to get a win.
Do you break the season down in segments, like 10-game segments?
I am that kind of coach. I haven't done it this year. Segments are really important. It can be a long grind if you start looking at the 82-game schedule. It can be a little overwhelming at times. The short-term goal is important for a team. Most importantly, we have to get ourselves together as a team first. That's been the most important thing for me since training camp. We're putting together a group of new guys from different teams and juniors. We're trying to get ourselves organized to become a team. The focus has been on that. As we get going, maybe the second part of the season, we'll have that in place. I like to do reviews after 10 games. I don't do every player on the team, but I have talked to three-quarters of the team one-on-one or small groups to review the past 10 games and keep building on a lot of the positive stuff we've done. It's verbal. It's reinforcing their roles on the team, what's important. At the end of these 10 games in a team review, I feel it's important we play four lines. Quite a few of the games I went with three. The minutes on the fourth line indicate that where we're down to three or four minutes. We're not getting the job done. As you saw in the game against Anaheim, I did (use) the four lines. They contributed. There was a lot more energy. And that's the way I want to stay with it until we can get this thing headed in the right direction, meaning some consistent play on the top lines, some results on the offensive parts of things with points in the standings and points in the individual player column. Until that starts to happen, I'm going to go with the four lines. Down the road at the end of the schedule, the second half is pretty demanding so we're going to have to have everybody contributing.
Is there value to consistency on the lines?
There's value to two players being together on the line. I'm looking for something good to happen on our top line with Kopi and Brownie. We tried a lot of people through the training camp. I want to find chemistry. I want to find the right guy that's going to make it happen with them. I'm still looking. Calder's played pretty good and had a couple good games, but I'm still looking for something to put that line right up at the top.
Does this interchangeable part on the top line not matter until Kopitar gets going?
He's got one goal. He has to get his game going. We're talking about it. We've had several meetings. It's pretty common when there's a new coach and the focus is on the defensive part of the game. It's checking from the beginning and taking away those Grade A scoring chances. That has happened. Overall, we're doing a pretty good job in that area and that does take away from other parts of the game until you breakthrough and figure it all out and it all comes together. I'm understanding of that, but now 10 games we need to focus on the other side of the game also.
Are the young guys resilient or could they get scarred?
You can get scarred, but it makes you tougher. It's a good mental thing to go through. As a rookie coming in to a situation where you're playing on a top team and all of a sudden three or four players on that championship team have retired or moved on, and now the responsibility is on you and you've never gone through the tough part of growing. It's been easy for you. So, I'm hoping that this year is going to be that kind of (experience) for the young players, that we can learn something good of going through difficult times and make us tougher mentally for the future.
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.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
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SPONGEBOB ICEBERG!!!!
Murray, until you put the offensive players together on the same lines and keep them together you will not have scoring that you can count on.That means leaving them together for more than 1 game.How about Kopi with Sully and Brownie for starters, they have chemistry and expierence playing together and have prooven they can score.Let them play together or this hockey club doesn't win,you can bet on it.10-06-08 M.S.
Murray, until you put the offensive players together on the same lines and keep them together you will not have scoring that you can count on.That means leaving them together for more than 1 game.How about Kopi with Sully and Brownie for starters, they have chemistry and expierence playing together and have prooven they can score.Let them play together or this hockey club doesn't win,you can bet on it.10-06-08 M.S.
I almost said that coach ought to light a fire under Iceberg, but that might not be a great idea...
DL is gonna regret hiring this coach real soon.
Thus far, the only thing he's shown is some eratic coaching and a stuborn attitude.
I don't understand his line combos one bit.
Moller-Fro-Stoll - OK
Kopi-Brown-Calder - 2 good players with a dud
Hanzus-Simmonds-Ivanans - 2 good players and a zero
POS-Boyle-Harrold - 2 good players with a 7th D-man.
This is soooo old school. What about putting two solid line together with top 6 players. That's what most descent coaches do. But this guy likes the top 12 theory. Or should I say bottom 12.
His infauation with an average goalie instead of a better goalie makes me wonder as well. I'm also a bit puzzled as to what he has against POS and Stoll.
Kopi and Brown haven't been tearing it up of late, why do they keep their position. Handzus has tailed off quite a bit but he continues to play his 20 minutes. He's so slow on the ice. Did any of scratch your head when he started OT period against ducks. It takes about 30 seconds for him to move from one face-off circle to the next.
What I hate the most about this coach is that instead of looking for ways to help the team improve, he looks to put blame on any player who makes a mistake. That way it takes away the attention from his own incompetence.
I hope DL fires him. But he probably won't. If he does fire him, he'll soon follow. AEG will be real pissed off if they continue to pay money to people who no longer are on the team - i.e. Cloutier, McCauley, Crawford and hopefully TM. Marc Crawford is 100 times better than this coach.
It is great that Murray evaluates himself every 10 games also. An important component of great leadership is continuous improvement. This can only happen if one is willing to acknowledge (I was overworking the top 3 lines early on) what he is doing that is not working and to try to change it. Too many just stick with the status quo.
It sounds like the injury during camp may have slowed EE's readiness for the start of the season. I did not think he played well in camp. I'm glad Murray allowed him to take extra practice and get his game back to 100%. There is nothing worse than putting an eager rookie out there before they are ready. It can destroy their confidence. I hope TM is willing to show the same patience when JJ comes back.
Is TM the best coaching hire in 08? Yes, if you like someone who will talk one on one with the players, who will do a self evaluation every so often, who shows patience with mistakes committed once, and one who will take the heat to protect his players.
Some of the people that bash the coach were the same people who were bashing DL for not getting Tavares over Doughty, for trading Cammi for Tuebert, and for selecting the Russians w/o a trans agreement.
Totall misuse of the forwards and it shows in the results.Maybe a coaching change is indeed in order?
It's definitely getting harder to make sense of the line combos. I assume that Murray has seen a number of things in practice that I've missed in the games that I've been to (4) and seen on TV (2). Some faith may be required, perhaps... hopefully.
At the same time, he certainly deserves at least some credit for getting the defense playing well. He had nothing to do with the personnel changes, but he's done well with the pairings and presumably instruction in practice. Crawford was an absolute disaster in this regard, so I think we're far better off with Murray. The offense will come together... it's just frustrating seeing potential scattered all over the place and relatively few wins to show for it.
Furtermore,this team is no where good enough to play 4 lines, if it does you will win very few games.Tanking ain't good for season ticket holders and will to less fans coming to the games.Wake up call for Murray.
For those of you who incessantly bitch about the ice at Staples, check this out...
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Brennan/2008/11/06/7324336-sun.html
Of course, it's probably AEG's fault.
Jet, I agree with you. I like what TM is doing. He was brought in to teach, play defense and build a culture. As much as players and fans dislike it, it starts with the players. They have to do what's asked of them first, then put your personal touch to it.
Kings win 4 to 1 tonight. Doughty gets his first assist tonight, along with a goal. I love that kid.
Quisp, been away for a little. Sorry I didn't get back to you on the last post. My daughter was gone, so I had those two extra tickets. I had never been seated in that section before. It was nice, but I certainly wouldn't pay that price to sit there all year. Even talked to a couple ice girls in the elevator going to my seats. The night started off well:-) My sister-in-law is corporate America, so that's how I got those tickets.
what did you think about Ersberg first start?
what do you think about our offensive woes?
In the summer, I didn't quit see how our defense was going to be better than last year. But your predictions have been right on so far. They're not much on offense, but they are playing well in their zone. That's nice to see.
I agree with Jet that hiring Terry Murray was a great move. I'm mystified by the line combinations and some of the other decisions he's made, but he has really solidified our play in the defensive zone and generally made us more competitive overall.
This year we're nit-picking over one or two defensive errors per game, whereas last year was a never-ending series of blunders and missed assignments. We've lost some games that we could have won, and our first line hasn't really started producing yet.
It's going to be a long season, but as long as we continue to compete each night it won't be nearly as bad as last year.