Murray Is Dealt a Setback

Coach Andy Murray indicated for the first time Saturday that it could be several more weeks before he is well enough to rejoin the Kings.

“They tell you it can take anywhere from four weeks to six weeks to get back to feeling normal again,” Murray said from his home in Faribault, Minn., where he is 16 days into his recuperation from injuries suffered in a single-vehicle accident. “Obviously, I’m hoping it’s a lot shorter than that.”

Meanwhile, the Kings carry on without their coach, losing, 2-0, Saturday to the Columbus Blue Jackets in front of a sellout crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center.

Falling to 2-1 under interim Coach Dave Tippett, the Kings lost to the NHL’s worst team, failing to complete a four-game season series sweep, despite giving up only 13 shots, three fewer than they’d given up against any other opponent this season.

The Blue Jackets, outscored by the Kings, 15-4, in three previous games, took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Mike Sillinger midway through the first period and went into a shell the rest of the way to preserve their lead.

Grant Marshall scored into an empty net with 43 seconds to play.

In between, the Kings fired 30 shots that were stopped by Ron Tugnutt and were shut out for the sixth time, the first since Jan. 10 at Boston.

“They just played a solid road game,” King center Jason Allison said of the Blue Jackets, who were burned for a season-high four points by Allison in a 5-1 loss Tuesday night at Columbus, Ohio. “They got that goal and they just sat back. We just couldn’t find a way to get a puck in the net....

“That shouldn’t happen this time of the year when you’re playing a game you should win. We’re going to have to make up for that now.”

The Kings had converted eight of 13 power-play opportunities against the Blue Jackets, two of four Tuesday night, but they were 0 for 5 on Saturday.

Also, a first-period goal by Steve Heinze was disallowed because the King winger knocked the puck into the net with his stick above the crossbar, and a second-period shot by defenseman Mathieu Schneider banged off the crossbar.

“You’re trying to find a goal somewhere,” Tippett said, “and it’s like the hockey gods are against you that night.”

It wasn’t as if the Kings weren’t trying to exploit a team that had won only two of its previous 14 games, forward Ian Laperriere said.

“We played them with respect,” Laperriere said. “It’s not like we were sitting back and saying, ‘It’s going to be an easy one.’ We knew they were going to come hard and we showed them a lot of respect by working hard too.

“But we didn’t get the result we were looking for at the end.”

Back in Minnesota, Murray also was hoping for better results in his recovery from what doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told him last week was a severe concussion. But it has been a slow process.

Murray has experienced severe headaches and vomiting over the last two weeks, symptoms of post-concussion syndrome, and said he is unable to focus on even the simplest of tasks, such as watching a game from beginning to end.

The coach also suffered a broken and separated left shoulder, four broken ribs and numerous cuts and scrapes Feb. 15 when the pickup truck he was driving skidded off an icy patch of Interstate 90 outside Sparta, Wis., and rolled several times down an embankment.

But it’s the concussion that has caused him the most problems. Like most sufferers of post-concussion syndrome, Murray said he sometimes feels OK for a short time, but then his symptoms return.

On Thursday, for instance, he felt great when he phoned Tippett and said he’d be at practice today.

On Friday, feeling ill again, he was back at the hospital.

“I’ve just got to get back to feeling good for a couple of days, rather than a couple of hours,” he said. “I haven’t had that yet. The problem is just being able to focus--to keep your thoughts straight on one thing.”