Back to work

TM needs to start working on producing some offense.
His team is starting to look like a laughing stock out there.

I'm never gonna take this coach seriously.
I'll never take his commitment to winning seriously until he starts emphasizing some offense. I know defense is more important than offense, but this is ridiculous. Players must be terrified of this coach. Terrified of being benched if they're caught cheating on defense (ala Alexander Frolv).

With all this tallent we have up front, if TM can't coach offense like he coaches defense, let him go back to being an assistant with Philly.

TM has done an outstanding job thus far.
Our team is starting to form its identity.

His demeanor and system command respect.
I wholeheartedly believe in his commitment to this team and think he's emphasizing better play in all the right areas. He's keeping them focused on playing solid defense while they continue to come together as a team. Players must feel like they're truly a part of something special. Comfortable in knowing their roles and responsibilities and committed to fulfilling them and improving everyday.

With the way all this talent is coming together so soon, TM will have this team competing in the playoffs much sooner than he anticipated. I'm very glad DL picked this class act from Philly.

I couldn't disagree more with you here Anthony. Everyone here bitched ALL year long last year about how weak our defense was, how he need to cut down on quality chances, blah blah blah. Now we finally get it, and you're complaining? We finally have an above-average defense (and better win-loss record) and unquestionably the main reason behind it is the coach's committment to defense and making the players accountable for backchecking.

Coaching and a system have a huge impact on how effective a team's defense is and TM has done an unbelievable job in this area. The 89% approval rating (or whatever it was) in the poll a few weeks back makes me thing the VAST majority of Kings fans agree. Perhaps those who like to complain just need to find something to complain about.

No question that Kopi-POS-Brown line has been struggling offensively. However, I don't see how you line their offensive struggles with TM's coaching and system! TM has put them together at various times during the year and each time almost no offensive 'magic'. What more can TM do than put them together? I'm certainly frustrated with their lack of chemistry this year but to put the fault/blame for it on TM doesn't really make any sense.

Anthony.
The lack of offense is frustrating, but we can't blame it all on Murray.
Lombardi has stripped the team of some of the offensive talent because the players were not his type. We're going to have to wait for more of his picks to mature before we can score SIGNIFICANTLY more goals.
I do think Murray has the tools to score at least 1 more goal a game, however.
Last year we were a great offensive team that just needed to learn how to play defense better, and a better goalie.
We've had the "better goalie" all along, thanks to DTaylor, but we spent a top pick on Bernier because we didn't think Quickie was going to be the guy.
I'm not a fan of picking goalies high in the draft (imagine if we'd have drafted Little, or gone off the board for Lucic), but there's an argument to be made that Bernier helped push Quickie...
Now that we may have a great one in Quickie, though, it's difficult not to imagine or envy what we might have had instead of Bernier.

geeblenob - I have to say that after 38 games, the APD line has about 38 minutes playing together. Maybe keeping them together for a game or two in a row will spark something.

Murray's comments are objective and spot-on. I was at the game last night and was pretty frustrated (still hoarse today!!) with all the standing around. The Kings were pretty flat.

It was just the way it looked - Quick and Simmonds were by far the best players on our team, and they won the game for us. The Flyers handily outplayed us for probably 70% of the game.

I love the way Sully machine-guns the ice with his stick when he gets close to the goaltender on his run. Brown's hit on hit on Vaananen was priceless.

Murray is achieving what he and Lombardi intended - that is, to develop a defensively-responsible team with players who aren't afraid to rely on each other. EVERYONE on the team has bought into the system. It's not complicated. It is somewhat perplexing that our leading players aren't scoring or playing the way they should, but Murray will help get that sorted out before too long as well.