Long Trip Won’t Leave Murray With Bad Taste

To King Coach Andy Murray, the NHL season is like a feast, available to be savored however one chooses.

So Murray, ever the optimist, sees only the good in the Kings playing 13 of 15 games away from home over the next month, among them tonight’s game against the New York Rangers.

“The more we play on the road now, the less we play later,” Murray said. “I’m like that when I eat. I always eat the stuff I don’t like on my plate first, and then I know I’ve got the good stuff to look forward to.”

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Steve Heinze, whose failure to score a goal in his last 27 games with the Kings last season led to last month’s demotion to the minors, netted his first in five games with the Kings’ American Hockey League team at Manchester, N.H., on Wednesday night -- but just barely.

The veteran winger, guaranteed $2 million this season, scored with one second to play in the Monarchs’ 6-1 victory over the Springfield Falcons.

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Defenseman Chris McAlpine, signed by the Kings as an unrestricted free agent last summer but a scratch in all six games so far, was reassigned to Manchester on a conditioning assignment.

He is scheduled to play games tonight and Saturday with the Monarchs before rejoining the Kings on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio.

TONIGHT

at New York Rangers, 4 PDT, Fox Sports Net

Site -- Madison Square Garden.

Radio -- KSPN (1110).

Records -- Kings 3-1-2, Rangers 2-4-2.

Record vs. Rangers (2001-02) -- 1-1.

Update -- Jamie Storr stopped 34 shots in a 4-0 victory over the Rangers on Jan. 9, giving the Kings their first shutout in 57 games at Madison Square Garden and ending their 10-game winless streak in the building. Murray hasn’t forgotten. He said Thursday night that Storr, who defeated the Mighty Ducks in his only start this season, could get the call tonight in place of Felix Potvin: “We haven’t made our mind up for sure. It’s a possibility. We’ve been talking about it.”