Murray Seeking Power-Play Answer

OK, you figure it out.

The Kings are getting shots from the point. Traffic to the net. Puck movement. Attempting crossing plays.

“They are things I would tell my daughter’s team to try on the power play,” Coach Andy Murray said Saturday.

He would also expect Sarah Murray’s team back in Minnesota to be better than three for 47 on the power play, the Kings’ plight over their last nine games.

The answer is, there is no answer. The Kings have their best offensive players on the ice for the power play.

Don’t blame the absence of Ziggy Palffy. The Kings were three for 40 with him before he suffered an injury Wednesday night at the Arrowhead Pond.

It’s the same group--except for Palffy--that led the league through the first month of the season. And the same group that has practiced the power play nearly every day since Sept. 1.

Dave Tippett, the assistant in charge of the power play, tinkers with it daily.

Strangely, the Kings have continued to win, even without the power play. They are 4-3-2 in that nine-game drought.

“I don’t know if we can try anything any different,” Murray said a day after the Kings tried a last-gasp, desperation, pull-the-goalie-for-six-attackers ploy with almost five minutes to play in Friday’s 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

Yes, the Kings can try something different. It’s generally Murray’s answer to any question about how to fix the power play: “Score.”

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Murray said that goalie Stephane Fiset was ready to play but would be held out of tonight’s game against the Nashville Predators. Fiset will probably serve as the backup for Jamie Storr in Tuesday’s game against the Mighty Ducks.

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Defenseman Aki Berg, sidelined for a week because of a concussion, will probably play tonight.

Tonight

vs. Nashville, 5

Fox Sports Net

* Site--Staples Center.

* Radio--KRLA (1110).

* Records--Kings 34-28-9-3, Predators 25-40-7-7.

* Record vs. Predators--3-0.

* Update--Nashville arrives on a high, having begun its trip by taking the Detroit Red Wings to overtime Tuesday before losing, 3-2; having broken a six-game Colorado Avalanche winning streak with a 2-2 tie Thursday; and having beaten the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3, when Greg Johnson’s overtime goal finished a rally from a 2-0 deficit Friday night. It was Johnson’s first goal since Jan. 8. Goalie Mike Dunham, who spent some postgame time at Colorado taking intravenous fluids, is expected to be trying for his 17th victory, which would be his career high.

* Tickets--(888) 546-4752.