Erik Ersberg to start tonight, Justin Williams en route
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Arriving at the Kings’ training facility in El Segundo to prepare for tonight’s game against Dallas at Staples Center, Coach Terry Murray immediately noticed that the atmosphere had changed from the day before.
‘I walked into the players’ lounge [Wednesday] morning and the whole team was sitting around the TV listening to the trade center on TSN,’ he said. ‘And then this morning I walk in and it’s a much more relaxed group.
‘It’s a difficult time for the players at the trade deadline. Unless you’re one of the elite teams in the league there’s always a possibility of things happening and we’re no different. It’s a hard time of the year to end up somewhere else.’
He speaks from experience: as a player, he was traded from Philadelphia to Detroit and from Philadelphia to Washington around deadline time.
The Kings’ lone deadline-day acquisition, right wing Justin Williams, was due to arrive in Los Angeles late this afternoon. Murray said he had spoken to Williams, who will need about three weeks before his broken hand is entirely healed and he’s able to play.
Murray also said Williams hadn’t been skating -- but he’d like to see Williams get back on the ice to stay in shape.
Murray was an assistant coach in Philadelphia when Williams was just starting out, and Murray recalled him as a kid who was ‘trying to find his niche, trying to find his role on the team.’
‘You could see the skill level, the instinctive play that he had. And now when the deal happens to send him to Carolina, playing against him you see a player really finding his way. He became an impact player, a very important player for Carolina. He scores a lot of goals -- a lot of big goals for them. He’s not a player that has a lot of top-end speed but he’s very quick and he gets great body position in the offensive zone to get that opportunity. And a good person. He’ll fit into our locker room.’
Team captain Dustin Brown said it was difficult to lose Patrick O’Sullivan in the Williams trade. O’Sullivan went to Carolina, which then traded him to Edmonton for Erik Cole.
‘He was one of the players that had been here for a few years and we’ve kind of grown together, so it was tough to see Sully go,’ Brown said. ‘He’s going to a team with a lot of history, and I’m sure he’ll be excited about that, but it’s one of those days where it’s tough to see guys go but at the same time it’s part of the business.
‘We’ve got to focus on tonight’s game and the rest of the season, really.’
Veteran Sean O’Donnell was glad to still be a King after the deadline and happier still to get a one-year contract extension through next season. Some contending teams might have
been interested in him but General Manager Dean Lombardi wanted to keep him for his leadership and good influence on his younger teammates.
‘I made no bones to anyone that was willing to listen that this is where I’d like to stay,’ said O’Donnell, 37. ‘I don’t know how many years I have left, but I’d like to spend them in a Kings uniform.’
He may not have enough years left to be with the Kings should they ever get far in the playoffs, but he was hoping he wouldn’t be traded even to a team that might be close to the Cup.
‘There’s no guarantees. You look in a crystal ball you never know what you’d say but this is the team I’d like to help turn things around and I think that we’re on the right path,’ he said. ‘And going somewhere as a rental for a chance to win the Cup wouldn’t be my first choice of what I’d like to do.
‘Maybe it’s because I’ve already won one, but I’d like to stay here. I consider this kind of my home team.’
Two other notes: Murray said Erik Ersberg will start in goal as the Kings try to end an 0-2-2 streak at home and that Oscar Moller will move from the wing back to his natural center position with Michal Handzus and Brown as his wingers.
More later at latimes.com/sports.
-- Helene Elliott