alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Asked about Teddy Purcell’s season so far, Terry Murray had effusive praise for Purcell’s play at both ends, some of the strongest praise I’ve ever heard Murray give any player. Given that Purcell was supposed to be the key to the second line, that should bode well for the Kings, yet the three players on that line — Brown, Purcell and Stoll — have produced only two goals in six games.
First, Murray talks about Purcell’s game, then answers the question of whether he’s concerned about a lack of second-line production…
MURRAY: “He’s tremendous. He is so smart. He makes so many good plays and reads and he’s playing the right way. He was in on the forecheck, he got the puck stopped up because of taking a hit, and again, that’s critical on the forecheck. That allows your second man to get in and give support and battle for the puck.
“I really like what Teddy is doing. He has grown tremendously from last year. You know, the little play that happened last night, when he flipped the puck up and Brownie got in on the forecheck, not many guys make that decision, that fast. That’s special play. He’s getting better all the time.”
MURRAY: “Not yet. We want to see production. They’ve come up with a couple of huge goals so far this year, but their whole attitude is in the right direction. They’re doing the right stuff, with putting pucks to the net, and traffic. Brownie drove last night off the wing, and I don’t know if he did that last year or not.
“Maybe there were a couple times, but often he would delay and spin and try to beat the guy 1-on-1, but he got his shoulder on the inside. Once he did stop, and the second time he drove to the net. That’s power forward play, and that’s what I want to see from him all the time. That brings Stolly to the net and Purcell to the net, and results will happen off those kinds of decisions.”
I wasn’t very happy with Brownies play last night … he held the puck a lot and his stick handling looked sloppy, it rolled off his stick a couple of times for a turnover.
And the play where he looked like he would drive the net, but then stopped and spun around to attempt a behind the back pass, made me furious! There was no chance that pass would work with all the bodies it had to go through … your no Frolov on the half boards.. take it to the net!
again, this is a new line and we are only 6 games into the season. We have seen the second line come up huge in 2 different games with timely goals.
They talk about timely saves by a goaltender, timely goals are just as important. It seems that they are on verge of putting a lot of pucks in the net.
…i say keep it up and keep improving.
yeah…things are heading in the right direction…we seem to have a different feel and emotion and…probably most importantly…the belief that they can win every game…
whether it’s the additions of smyth and scuderi…and/or…the subtractions of calder, etc…you get the sense we are witnessing a team growing right in front of our eyes…they are finally learning about winning…and what it takes…
yes, it’s 6 games…only six games…but there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic…
Remember last year at this time Murray was changing the lines from game to game? At least this year he seems content to let these lines play out. Good news.
howe 9…
completely agree and a point i’ve been making to notice since pre-season…
the 4th line is becoming a nice compliment and/or experiment…i like to call it the “reward line” because it seems that t.m. is utilizing it as a “hot player” composite late in games…i like this idea…hiwever, i’m sure it will change rather soon once we get closer to the 15-20 game mark, if not sooner…
I think people are being way too critical of the second line’s “lack of production”. They may not be finishing, but they’re getting good chances and playing solid all around. I think part of the reason the first line has been succesful is that all four kings’ lines have been playing solid. This makes it really tuff for opposing teams to much up well against smyth-kopi-williams.
Bottom line is, lay of brownie, teddy, and stoll. They’ll be better then alright if they keep on playing the way they are.
Kings Lose Back to Back Games…
After winning 4 games in a row, the Los Angeles Kings were defeated twice in as many nights to bring their record to 4-3-0 after 7 games.On Wednesday night the setting was New York City where in……