Murray talks Purcell, line changes

It won't last long.
One way or another, this coach will find a reason to put his beloved Calder back on the top line.

He's very inconsistent.
If offensive players need to play with other offensive players, then why did he play poor Sully with Peter Harrold for 11 games.
Why is he playing Oscar Moller on the 4th line with a couple of scrubs.
Right.

Exactly. Purcell is a more offensive player so he needs to play on the offensive lines. Put him in the position to succeed. If he doesn't, then drop him to the 2nd line. If not there, drop him to Manchester.

Thank God, Purcell's not on the 3rd or 4th line.

I agree with Anthony. I'm glad he's playing Purcell with Kopi and Sully, but I'll do cartwheels if Murray sticks with it rather than throw darts at the line-up chart for the next game.

Oh, and Moller on the 4th line? I'm sure he'll excel at it just like Boyle. Sheesh!

Anthony,
Moller has been playing on offensive lines. He's been on the 2nd line for quite a while. I'm sure you're just upset that he hasn't been placed with Kopitar. But he's had a rather decent shot.

His points aren't coming on 5-on-5 though (about 30% of his points are). 5 of his 6 goals are on the powerplay. 9 of his 13 points are on the powerplay.

Moller is skilled, but he isn't shining at even-strength. This goes along with knowing that Murray wants to roll 4 lines.

After being in the doghouse AND allowing Murray time to see the type of player he is, O'Sullivan has worked his way back to being with Kopitar.

I think O'Sullivan's attitude has changed. He hasn't talked about being frustrated (that we've seen) and he's put his head down and skated wherever he's asked. This has earned him PP time and earned him back with Anze. This time, probably to get the Slovenian going rather than the other way around.

I'm really happy for Purcell. I hope he can do what he intends on doing, and the call-up works out for him.

Also, lets hope Ersberg can deliver from his recent setback.

Side note..I do feel that TM wants to have solid lines, but he's just not comfortable icing lines that don't give a solid offensive return after 60 minutes. If you agree with his methodology or not, lets hope the Kings can get a solid offensive performance starting tonight and forward.

i think the reason moller is on the 44th line, is because we only have 4 healthy centers. we'll see what happens when army/ richardson comes back.

Good for Terry Murry. Good for Purcell. Good for the Kings. It will be a fun game to go to. We'll see what the negative nellies have to say aftert tonights win.

BRS - It had better be a win with the depleted St. Louis back in our building.

wavesinair,

If Terry Murray would pencil in 4 consistent lines and stick with them for more than 1 or 2 games instead of playing musical chairs I would be content, but the Kings aren't winning and having the coach change his lines so frequently doesn't scream open-minded to me, it reeks of being flaky with your players. I would wager that each player and the team as a whole would play better if they not only knew their respective role, but could count on executing that role with the game plan for each and every game playing next to consistent linemates. I don't know if you follow baseball, but imagine if you have a lead-off player who is good at getting on base and manufacturing runs for his team and he has to deal with a new manager who keeps shuffling this player around to bat 5th or 8th or whatever just to get a look at what this player can do within the line-up. I can understand a few games of this, but one quarter of the way through your season and you're still tinkering with your line-up? I just don't agree with his philosophy. If my complaining bothers you all I can say is I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry about the head coach.

I agree with Irish on a few levels.
Me fightin irish, too, Pat.

Cheers EAT THE RICH.

No one is going to agree with one another 100% of the time, which is fine, but when someone throws the idiot tag at me, especially back-handed and when I didn't throw it our there, I tend to put up my dukes.

It's really no fun when you say basically "if we lose then I was right to be so negative but if we win then I'm still right because it's only depleted St. Louis and we still suck." There are no gimmies. If we win, it's what you call a victory. If we lose, it's a loss. Beating St Louis and beating Detroit, same two points.

Moving the players around so much is not likely to help them play better. I am fairly sure players wld prefer consistency--both in minutes and linemates.

See what happens. Murray has made some comments which indicate he is still trying to figure out what the players can and cannot do well--which I wld criticize at this point if that is the big part of the decision process since we are 25% through the season. Never is 100% clarity acheived.

I don't understand all the naysayers of Terry Murray. He is very consistant with being inconsistant. That's all you can ask

Put up your dukes? Yes!

So again, what are your lines tonight? pat? eatcristobal? tony? What is right?

Just as Patio said, a lot of coaches change things up regularly. This season is a write-off. Everyone knows this. But I have said over and over it shouldn't take this long, but it is/has. Murray is, regardless of what you may think, still getting to know these players. He has said as much.

wavesinair -

I've been posting lines for weeks.
They're all a version of this:
O'Sullivan - Boyle - Brown
Frolov - Kopitar - Purcell
Moller - Handzus - Richey/Army/Ivan (flipflop wings if you like)
Calder - Stoll - Simmonds

what i've been saying for weeks as well is that if this season is a write off why aren't we playing guys with upside rather than others without. Hell, if you want to keep Zeiler up play him with some talent.
Early in the year I thought it was great to be proven wrong, even in defeat. The team was playing really well and losing only when they had breakdowns. After the first Ducks game some of the flags were raised and all I'm wondering is what is the goal of the season. If it's make the playoffs, figure out the lines and see if we can't add some HOF veterans like Shanahan or Zubov in terms of talent (without trading any of the "core" guys.
If the goal is to learn and write off the season, play all the youth - less Calder unless it's on a grind line, no zeiler, trade richardson, give Ivan spot-duty, play the hell out of Boyle, Purcell, and possibly Lewis (who I've never seen skate). They learn, we lose, we get Tavares or some other highly touted prospect.

Whatever the mindset is inside the org., the coaching and the lines aren't in line. The reason people are getting worried is that there doesn't seem to be much left of the "defensive system" lately and we still can't score when we need to. Colorado game saw another 5on3 wasted and we don't even need to talk about the confused lines.

You're much more personable when you keep it to hockey.