Murray Reaffirms Leiweke’s Warning

King players should not have been surprised by comments made over the weekend by club President Tim Leiweke that the team is prepared to make wholesale roster changes if it falls out of the playoff race, Coach Andy Murray said Monday.

“It’s not something that we haven’t addressed,” he said. “There are occupational hazards in our business. It’s not usual on winning teams that things happen that you don’t like; it’s when you don’t get the job done [that they do].

“We can complain about it or whatever, but that’s the reality of the situation, so the topic has already been discussed around here.

“Tim just emphasized what they’d already heard.”

Leiweke said he is still hoping for a turnaround, but he said the Kings have never before been hit with so many injuries in the 7 1/2 years that Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz has owned the team.

“In the last two years, people have talked about us falling out of it and we’ve made incredible runs both years,” he said. “Can we do it again this year? I hope so. But the big difference is, the last two years we got healthy and made a run.

“The question is, are we going to get healthy? We’re [more than] halfway through the year and we have yet to be healthy.”

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TONIGHT

At San Jose, 7:30, Fox Sports Net

Site -- HP Pavilion.

Radio -- KSPN (710).

Records -- Kings 19-23-4-4, Sharks 18-20-6-5.

Record vs. Sharks -- 1-2.

Update -- Lynn Loyns, who has spent the last two months in the minors, and Mike Rathje each scored two goals to help the Sharks to a 5-2 victory over the Kings on Nov. 5 at San Jose.