Changing Their Tune on Theme

With the disappointing Kings struggling to stay out of last place in the Pacific Division, Coach Andy Murray said Wednesday that he has temporarily scrapped their season theme of “best ever,” as in, “season in King history.”

The signs in the locker room are gone, the T-shirts out of date.

“This idea of best ever, we’ll put it on the shelf for a while,” Murray said. “We’ll bring it back out when we’re more deserving. We’ll just simply go back to being tough to play against [their more modest theme from two seasons ago]....

“Was the first theme wrong? It was thought out. We thought the process would be that you come from tough to play against to raise the bar [last season’s theme] and now the best ever. But maybe I underestimated the number of changes and the time it would take to get things going. I take responsibility for that.

“I don’t know if we could say the [best ever] theme was wrong, but maybe we weren’t quite ready for it.”

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While the King power play ranked sixth in the NHL and was the league’s best on the road before Wednesday’s games, it ranked only 23rd at home after failing to score on five manpower advantages in Monday’s 2-0 loss to the Calgary Flames.

“We think our defensemen are trying to fine-tune their shots from the blue line,” Murray said. “They’re trying to pick a corner. And if you miss it, we’re not getting a rebound. Quite often, the puck’s coming around the boards.

“All we were working on today was shooting to the middle of the net, with the idea that our guy in front can tip it either direction, or at least by doing that we can get a rebound. The other thing is, if you shoot to the middle of the net, the guy can be a more effective screen than if you’re shooting to the side and the goalie can look around him. If you shoot it right to the middle, the goalie’s got to honor that guy in front of him and he has a tougher time seeing the puck.”

TONIGHT

vs. St. Louis, 7:30

Fox Sports Net

Site--Staples Center.

Radio--KSPN (1110).

Records--Kings 8-13-3-2, Blues 13-9-4-1.

Record vs. Blues--1-0.

Update--The Kings overcame a two-goal third-period deficit and scored four goals in the last 15 minutes 15 seconds of a 6-5 victory over the Blues on Oct. 11 at St. Louis. This is the last game of a five-game homestand for the Kings, who play eight of their next 10 on the road, starting Saturday night at St. Louis.

Tickets--(888) 546-4752.