Murray Remains Pleased With Win

After playing 10 games in 19 days--a game every other day since Feb. 6--the Kings had Sunday off.

But Coach Andy Murray was at his office at the HealthSouth training center in El Segundo, ordering in pizza while he reviewed the Kings’ 3-1 victory over Columbus Saturday and analyzed tapes of their next opponent, the Nashville Predators.

Upon review, he was as pleased with Saturday’s victory as he was immediately afterward. “Other than a phase in the first period of about six minutes after we killed two penalties, when we lost a little bit of our offense and we weren’t moving the puck real effectively, we stuck to what we wanted to do,” he said. “We talked about going after them, and we did that without opening up.”

Murray was also delighted with the early returns on the Rob Blake trade, which brought Aaron Miller and Adam Deadmarsh to the Kings, with draft picks and a prospect, for Blake and Steven Reinprecht. Miller played right defense with Mattias Norstrom, and Deadmarsh played right wing with Glen Murray and Jozef Stumpel.

“It’s early, but if you base it on the two games Miller has been in the lineup, he looks like the type of defenseman we’ve been missing,” Murray said. “That’s nothing negative about Rob Blake. We looked for a defensive defenseman and Aaron has given us that. What you saw from Adam--five hits, two real good scoring chances and being real tough in front of the net--that’s what we expected.”

Miller and Deadmarsh returned to Colorado for a few days and will rejoin the Kings in Nashville.

*

Defenseman Mathieu Schneider, idled because of a groin strain Saturday, won’t accompany the team to Nashville and Chicago. Defenseman Philippe Boucher hurt his hand blocking a shot Saturday, but it improved Sunday and he’s expected to stay in the lineup.