Murray Says It’s Time to Start Wising Up

The Kings also lost their first two playoff games last season, but Coach Andy Murray said he sees few similarities between the club’s situation last April and the one it faces today, trailing the Colorado Avalanche.

“We came back from Detroit last year down, 2-0, and we hadn’t competed,” Murray said Saturday after the Kings’ 5-3 loss. “We hadn’t played hard.

“It was a major adjustment that had to be made on our hockey club for us to have a chance to come back in that series. I don’t think there’s a major adjustment that has to be made here.”

The Kings, Murray said, simply need to play smarter.

“I don’t question our heart or our determination,” he said. “I don’t question our physical play, or our commitment. I’m just a little critical of some of the decisions we’re making. But obviously we’re playing a great team. We recognize that.”

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Adam Deadmarsh, traded to the Kings last season in the deal that sent All-Star defenseman Rob Blake to the Avalanche, asked by reporters why he hadn’t purchased Blake’s oceanfront home in Manhattan Beach: “I’ve got to score a lot more goals before I can afford that.”

Blake made $9 million this season, Deadmarsh $2.75 million.

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For the first two periods of Game 2, the Kings’ No. 1 line of Jason Allison, Deadmarsh and Ziggy Palffy did their best to keep pace with Colorado’s dominating top two lines. For every Avalanche goal scored by the lines headed by Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg, the Kings answered with a score from either Deadmarsh or Allison. But that all changed in the third period, when Colorado blanked the Kings and limited them to six shots on goal.

“For a while we gave them too much space there because they have three great players,” Sakic said. “But we tied their line up a little more in the third period once we got the lead.”