Maintaining the momentum?
Terry Murray talked today about trying to sustain the momentum built before the all-star break...
Question: Dustin Brown talked about how those three games before the break were so important to the season. Since you got five points in those six games, where does that leave you heading into the second half?
MURRAY: ``We're kind of in the same scenario. The must-wins are there. Every game we play has to be approached as though it's a playoff-type game. When you have that type of a desparation, you figure it out and you just go and play the right way, and play with structure and play incredibly hard. Or sometimes you're afraid to meet the challenge. I think that what I saw in those three games was, we stood up and did a great job with team play. That's the kind of carry-over that we need after this break here, to follow up with the same effort every night. I think the players understand that. They're talking about it. We have talked about it individually and we have talked about it as a group. Right now, the attitude toward the last 36 games is really good, so we'll see how it goes.''

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.
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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 

Hopefully they can start the second half of the season on the right foot. Chicago played a tough game last night in Anaheim and we have had 8 days off since the game in Colorado... hopefully they can play like its a playoff game and wear the Blackhawks down.
Its always important to play with energy and intensity, but extremely important when the opponent is in a back-to-back situation!!
Cheers,
Matt
www.viewfrommyseats.com