Murray Says Team Gets Timing Down

In the aftermath of a 4-0 victory over Phoenix in their first exhibition game, King Coach Andy Murray pointed to positive signs everywhere, which is not surprising for a coach who is 1-0.

The plus signs:

“A belief on the part of our players in the 40-second, hard-skating shift as a way we could be successful,” Murray said.

“I also was pleased with the energy we had on the bench. I’d like to bottle that up or film it and play it for the team in January.

“And I wanted us to set a standard for this team.”

The 40-second business is a Murray requirement. He had Peter Millar, the team’s equipment manager, behind the bench with a stopwatch, sounding out 25-, 30- and 35-second intervals, then counting down to 40. The idea is to have players on the bench anticipating shifts and to foster a mental clock while they are on the ice.

“Peter can tell people he’s really making the shifts and that guy Murray is just standing there behind the bench,” Murray joked. “When I coached the [Canadian] national team to the World Championship, that’s what the equipment manager said.”

But Murray saw room for improvement, especially in the third period when some players began staying on the ice longer. “They were looking for that one more offensive opportunity and ran out of gas,” he said. “[Phoenix] had a couple of scoring chances as a result.”

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Jason Podollan, in camp but unsigned, will not be used in exhibition games until he has a contract.

At issue is not NHL money, but minor league money in a split contract that anticipates he will spend time at Long Beach of the International Hockey League. He is one of two unsigned Kings. The other is defenseman Mattias Norstrom.

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Jamie Storr will start in goal for the Kings during Tuesday’s game against Colorado.