Johnson, and the need for fundamentals

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Sixteen of the Kings’ 18 skaters had at least one shift on the power play last night, and Jack Johnson was not one of them. Nor did Johnson have a penalty-kill shift. Here’s what Terry Murray said about Johnson’s reduced role…

Question: I believe last night was the first time, since he came back, that Jack Johnson didn’t get any power-play time. Is that a reflection of his play?

MURRAY: “For me, with the players, you earn the right to be there. It’s penalty killing, it’s playing on the top line, it’s minutes played… It’s a, `Do you have the right to play in the NHL?” kind of attitude. And I’m not specifically talking about Jack. It’s anybody. If you come up, as a player, do you deserve to be here to get that shot? It’s earning the right to play in those situations and to play in the league and to be a successful team. You earn the right to make the playoffs. You earn the right to win the Stanley Cup. It’s not something that’s going to be handed to anybody. You’ve got to dig in and do it. So, performance is my read on it.

“When I’m looking at young players, I really think that there are some young players that need to be brought along at the right pace, whether it’s just playing the 5-on-5 game properly and getting the fundamentals down, then you move on and move up, and start killing penalties and start playing on the power play. I think every player on our team has kind of gone through that process.

“I think that last night, after coming back from his injury, I think last night was his 21st game back. I did this with every player on our team. After the first 20 games, there was an evaluation process. I had meetings with players at the end of the first 20 games and talked about what I see, what we need, expectations, role, and a re-evaluation of how things are being handled. That’s the process I go through.”

Question: Were there any pointers given to Jack that you could share?

MURRAY: “The conversation with a young player, a young defenseman especially, is about really being consistent in the fundamentals of the game, being a good defending defenseman. That’s where it has to start. I went through a lot of young defensemen, even when I first started as an assistant coach, and that was just the way it was. I had Rod Langway a couple years with Washington, coming from Montreal. I talked to him extensively about this and about what the process was like with the Canadiens. It was about earning the right to play. Of course, everything has changed from those days, but that’s still a proven way of doing things. We need every player to be solid in the basics and the foundation, and from there, you build.”

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