O’Donnell Needs to Step It Up

Sean O’Donnell has plenty of pride, and it wasn’t easy hearing King Coach Andy Murray lump him with Aki Berg and Jere Karalahti--both much less experienced--as defensemen who weren’t doing their jobs well enough for the team to win.

“It’s not personal,” O’Donnell said of the dressing-room challenge before the Kings’ 7-2 win at Calgary on Wednesday night. “Even when he says you aren’t playing as well as you can, he’s done it only after he’s tried everything else. You know that he has other options and he’s tried them.”

When psychology doesn’t work, you take the direct approach. And, yes, it is personal.

“I respect him,” Murray said. “I respect what he’s done. But he has to play better. . . . He has to get to pucks, to get to people before they get to the puck, to be tough to play against.”

It has gotten bad enough that O’Donnell has joined a group he doesn’t want membership in.

“Right now, three [defensemen], Rob Blake, Matty Norstrom and Garry Galley, are kind of like untouchables,” said Murray, who added that the others are subject to being scratched. O’Donnell has not been, and that would be the ultimate blow to his pride.

“I know I have to play better,” he said. “It’s not like I’m a first- or second-year player. I’ve been in the league a while, and I even am an alternate captain sometimes.

“It’s not like I’m playing badly all the time. It’s like I have two good games and then one that isn’t so good. I have to be more consistent.”

He has to to join the “untouchables,” a group he would much rather have membership in.

TONIGHT

at Vancouver, 7

Fox Sports Net 2

* Site--General Motors Place.

* Radio--KRLA (1110).

* Records--Kings 29-24-7-3, Canucks 20-29-11-6.

* Record vs. Canucks (1998-99)--3-1.

* Update--Vancouver was tied by the Mighty Ducks, 4-4, in a bid to win its fourth game in a row for the first time since 1996 and is 5-2-1 in its last eight games. Eight Canucks missed Wednesday night’s game because of injuries, and two of them--Todd Bertuzzi and Chris Joseph--could be back tonight.