A Taylor-Made Coach for Kings

You have a sense that Andy Murray awakened Monday morning, looked at a things-to-do list and saw: “11:23 a.m. Sign three-year contract to coach the Kings.”

And if the pen was proffered at 11:24, you have an idea that Murray would have thought, “Why is this so late?”

“I’ll bet he’s already looked at videotape of the players,” said defenseman Garry Galley, who played for Murray with the Canadian national team.

Better than that.

Murray has a plan for virtually every minute from the time he said “I do” to the Kings.

That plan includes meeting every player, hopefully in a home situation, even if the home is in Finland; hiring assistant coaches, at least one of them a former player; dealing with every practice during training camp; exhibitions; the first long trip; moving into the Staples Center and new practice facility in El Segundo; and team building in any way he can imagine.

Oh, and Brandy Blake, Stacia Robitaille, Terry Lynn Galley and the other King wives can expect flowers Sept. 4, when training camp opens.

“It makes them realize how important they are to the success of the organization,” Murray said.

This attention to detail impressed Dave Taylor, the Kings’ senior vice president and general manager, and he decided Murray was the man to replace Larry Robinson.

The boss’ future might rest in Murray’s hands. Taylor has one more season, plus an option year, on his contract with the Kings.

“Am I staking my job on it?” Taylor said. “I believe to a certain extent . . . I understand that whether you’re the head coach or general manager in professional sports, it’s important that you have success and you win.”

With that in mind, Taylor, by nature a conservative sort, could have taken the safe way and chosen a known quantity as the first coach he has hired. Actually, he believes he has, but so far only he seems to know it.

Murray has never been an NHL head coach and spent last season at a prep school in Minnesota.

“We could have gone in one of two directions,” Taylor said. “We could have hired a former player or we could have hired a career coach. In Andy, we hired a career coach.

“In the [Stanley Cup] finals, you have [Buffalo Coach] Lindy Ruff, who is an ex-player who is doing an outstanding job. And on the other side you have [Dallas Coach Ken] Hitchcock, who has been a career coach who also has done an outstanding job.”

In Murray, the Kings are getting a 48-year-old coach with a track record of championships at every level, from college to the minor leagues, to being an NHL assistant at Minnesota, Winnipeg and Philadelphia, to coaching in Europe, in the American Hockey League and the Canadian national team, all before going to Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep last season after interviewing for the Mighty Ducks’ job that went to Craig Hartsburg.

Murray was ready to stay in Minnesota.

“There were situations that had come up. I was offered two jobs, one of them an associate head coaching job [with the Vancouver Canucks]. . . . But I don’t know how you can apply for a job and not be focused on that situation.

“I would have gladly gone back to Shattuck-St. Mary’s next year. It’s a very special place and I felt fortunate to have worked there.”

Instead, he has been given an opportunity to bring order to the Kings, who last season were an underachieving 32-45-5, 11th in the Western Conference, or three places out of a playoff berth.

“He understands players really well,” said defenseman Rob Blake, who played under Murray with Canada’s gold medal-winning 1997 world champions.

“He has stressed that he expects discipline of his players. We need that on this team. You aren’t going to win without that.

“We weren’t the hardest-working team in games last season, and you have to have that. You can’t win on talent alone. . . . You have to work.”

Murray offers a rigorous, no-nonsense approach to practice and games, stressing organization, preparation, responsibility and accountability.

“There is no such thing as an optional-effort practice, no such thing as an optional-effort game,” he said.

Fine, responded Blake, who complained about the laissez-faire attitude of his teammates last season, implying that its root was in Robinson’s lack of firmness in dealing with non-performers.

“We’ve had that the last four years and we’ve been to the playoffs once without [discipline],” said Blake, who will be playing for his fourth coach in 10 seasons with the Kings. “That structure, that much intensity coming to the team, well, there are two ways to do things and the other way didn’t work. That’s why I think this will.”

Murray is staking 20 years of his career quest on that. He set two goals upon embarking on the coaching trail: to run the Canadian national team and to be a head coach in the NHL.

Monday, he realized goal No. 2 only a year after the Ducks decided he wasn’t ready.

That decision sent him backward to prep school. Or maybe not backward at all.

“A lot of people will look and say, ‘We’ve got this high school coach coming into the National Hockey League,’ ” Murray said. “I’ve coached at all different levels, but I’ll tell you it might not be a bad idea for every coach at an elite level to step back a year, to go back and see the passion of the players who are playing at the youth level. To see the enthusiasm of the players.

“I want the Los Angeles Kings to have that same passion, that same enthusiasm. So I’m looking forward to working with them.”