Audette, Murray Need Breakthrough

Donald Audette says he’s feeling more at home back at right wing for the Kings, and Glen Murray has no real problems with moving from right to left.

“I played it a little with Boston,” Murray said.

What both are having problems with is being scoreless in the Kings’ first five games.

“If I had three goals right now, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Audette said.

He’s right. Both he and Murray--and center Bryan Smolinski--have increased their scoring chances in the two games since the switch, but so far the red light has stayed off.

Audette missed two shots Saturday, one of them from point-blank range, and Murray hit the goal post a game earlier at Tampa.

“We feel like when we finally get one, they’re really going to come,” said Murray, who led the Kings in goals two seasons ago with 29.

Said Audette: “The first goal is always the hardest.”

It doesn’t mean they will all be difficult. “I’m always a slow starter,” said Audette. “One year, I had three goals in the first 25 games. I finished with 28.”

Yes, but that was two seasons ago with Buffalo. He scored in his first shift last season after being acquired and signed in December by the Kings.

“Yeah, but that was in December,” Audette said. “The season should start in December. It’s still October.”

And the third line--Craig Johnson-Ian Laperriere-Marko Tuomainen--has the only goal not generated in some part by the first line all season.

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Andy Murray says that he doesn’t take himself seriously. Maybe that’s because he was at Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep last season and now finds himself a head coach in the NHL.

“If . . . we win, I’m considered a competent coach at this level,” he said. “If we lose a couple, I’m back to being a high school coach.”

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Murray had a stern admonition for fourth-line center Jason Blake, who has exhibited college enthusiasm--this time last season he was at the University of North Dakota--on the ice, but has found that gets in the way of the 40-second shifts that Murray wants.

“I told Jason, ‘If you don’t get off the ice, you’re not going to play,’ ” Murray said.

One of the problems is that, as a center, Blake frequently carries the puck and if he refuses to dump it into the offensive end, his teammates can’t get off the ice for a shift change.