Murray Set the Table, Kings Did Rest

There were no rah-rah speeches before the Kings’ morning skate Monday at their El Segundo training facility.

“We showed them some video clips and some things we wanted to do and some things we didn’t want to do, ending with Ziggy blocking that shot by Lidstrom in the last game,” Coach Andy Murray said.

Murray figured a few seconds’ worth of video of Ziggy Palffy, a skillful forward, sliding to block a blistering point shot by Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom in Game 5 would serve as all the motivation they would need going into Game 6.

After all, Murray said during the Kings’ first-round playoff series against the Red Wings that winning boils down to action rather than words.

“I told them there were four or five times this season that people were ready to read us the last rites,” Murray said of the talk he gave the team before the series-clinching 3-2 overtime victory Monday at Staples Center.

“I said, ‘You guys have earned the right to play this game. The building will be rocking. Enjoy it. I’m just along for the ride.’ ”

OK, so Murray resorted to a little rah-rah.

Can you blame him?

Monday’s game was only the most important moment in the Kings’ recent history.

No question, it was the biggest game in Murray’s two seasons behind the King bench.

Murray could be forgiven for going a bit overboard.

Two years ago, he was a high school coach in Minnesota. True, he was an overqualified high school coach in Minnesota, having been an NHL assistant and a coach of Canadian national teams, but nevertheless a leader of boys--not men.

Yet there he was Monday, calm, cool and collected mere hours before taking the Kings to their first playoff series win since they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1993 conference finals.

So much has changed since then, so many ugly and embarrassing moments that it’s difficult to know precisely when and where to start. No question, Bruce McNall’s financial misdeeds that led to the franchise’s bankruptcy were the nadir.

Murray’s hiring as the Kings’ 19th coach, on June 14, 1999, looked like another bad move. After all, the Mighty Ducks could have hired him to replace Pierre Page a year earlier, but passed.

Murray doesn’t swear and frequently uses the word “goldarn” without cracking himself up. He issued the players T-shirts that read: Raise the Bar. All sorts of motivational sayings are posted around the dressing room.

After Monday’s game, Murray said: “I just talked to my wife. She said, ‘Why weren’t you more excited. Why didn’t you jump up and down. You just shook hands and walked off.’ ”

Call him Andy of Mayberry, if you must, but he’s put the Kings into the second round of the playoffs, which hasn’t happened since that magical to the finals in 1993.

“The Curse of Marty McSorley” has finally been broken.

The Kings looked adversity and the Red Wings in the eye and didn’t flinch.

There were no excuses after dropping Games 1 and 2 in Detroit. In winning the next four from the second-seeded Red Wings, the seventh-seeded Kings simply played better, showed more speed, grit and passion.

To be fair, Scotty Bowman’s options were limited. The Red Wing coach was without Steve Yzerman, the team’s captain and emotional leader, for all but 5 minutes 58 seconds of the series. Yzerman tried to play in Game 6, but an ankle injury sidelined him for the fifth consecutive game.

Detroit also played four of the final five games without Brendan Shanahan, their top scorer during the season with 76 points. Bravely, heroically, he played on a broken left foot in Game 5, but couldn’t rescue the Red Wings. Shanahan didn’t leave Detroit with his teammates for Game 6.

However, Detroit had all the momentum after winning the first two games. The Kings seized it from the Red Wings--taking a 2-1 victory in Game 3, rallying for an improbable 4-3 overtime victory in Game 4 and handling the Red Wings, 3-2, in Game 5.

“Getting blown out by the Red Wings would have been miserable,” Murray said. “I felt we were underachieving in the first two games and that’s not doing a disservice to the Red Wings.”

After Game 2, with hours to prepare for Game 3, Murray decided it was time for a couple of changes.

First, he would read his players the riot act. “We had a stern talk,” he said. “We went after a few players. We challenged our players.”

Second, Murray shuffled his lines, putting together a French Connection line of Luc Robitaille, Eric Belanger and Ian Laperriere. Robitaille scored in Game 3, Belanger recorded the overtime winner in Game 4 and Laperriere tallied a second-period goal in Game 5.

“In the first two games, we didn’t even show up,” Murray said. “We were better in Game 3, so-so in Game 4 and finally played a good game in Game 5.

“If the Red Wings happened to beat us in the next two games and we played as hard as we can, then that’s the way it works. We have that responsibility to play as hard as we can.”