Coach, Club Think Long Term

Although the Kings are still chasing a Western Conference playoff spot, club executives apparently don’t blame Coach Andy Murray for the team’s struggles.

Murray said Wednesday he has had preliminary discussions about an extension of his three-year contract, which runs through next season.

“We’ve talked long term,” Murray said. “How far have we gone? I probably shouldn’t say too much. Dave [Taylor, the Kings’ general manager] has been fair with me. So have Tim [Leiweke, the club president] and Mr. [Phil] Anschutz [the club owner]. They recognize that sometimes you need to have some consistency and time to work things out.”

Murray and his assistants held a meeting Wednesday morning in which they rated players--and themselves--on their performances, dividing everyone into three groups. In the first group were players who have been playing as well as ever or better. The second group was made up of players who have not met expectations. In the third were players who haven’t played much or are newcomers, such as Lubomir Visnovsky, Steven Reinprecht and Steve Passmore. Murray said he put the coaching staff in the second group.

“To judge our team and not judge ourselves is unfair,” Murray said. “To have that many guys not playing well ultimately goes back to me. I take full responsibility for the situation we’re in. We as a coaching staff have to find a way to get more guys into that first group.

“It was a pretty quiet meeting. There wasn’t any yelling or hollering. We’ve done enough of that.”

Murray also said he has been tougher on players since November than he was last season. “We’ve maybe over-believed or been over-patient with players,” he said. “In a sense, we’ve given them opportunities, second opportunities and third opportunities. Maybe we need to move guys around.

“In coaching, you need to have stages. Initially, you can be really hard and really tough, and as time goes on, unless you let the players take a little bit of ownership, it’s tough. I don’t think that ownership has been grasped as well as we would like to see.”

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After taking a needless hooking penalty in the offensive zone at 10:12 of the second period to create a Dallas power play that produced the Stars’ first goal, left wing Luc Robitaille played only one more shift in the period. . . . Center Jozef Stumpel (strained hamstring) missed his second successive game after telling Murray during the morning skate he needed one more game to heal. . . . Taylor, who had been in Calgary and Sweden on scouting missions, was expected to meet the team in Minnesota for Friday’s game.