Murray Finds Some Work

Andy Murray, fired as King coach with 12 games left in the season, has already had a number of offers.

One was to coach at RPI, in Upstate New York, and he turned that down. He did find a temporary job: providing commentary on the CBC’s telecasts of the Ducks’ series against the Calgary Flames. After that, he says, he’s scheduled to be a studio analyst for TSN’s coverage of the World Championships later this month in Latvia.

“I have no timetable and I’m in no rush or anything that I’d jump in right now,” he said. “They’ll find you if they want you.”

Murray said he was disappointed that the Kings didn’t get to the playoffs.

“My mother didn’t want them to win a game,” he said. “She’d call me to say, ‘They lost again.’ But I wanted them to make the playoffs. I was pulling for them. We did have 79 points. I wanted the work we’d done early to pay off.”

The Duck series, he said, will be a battle. “People look at the speed and skill of the Ducks and underestimate their grit and determination,” he added. “I look at the grit of the Flames and I think people underestimate their speed and skill.”

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As they rushed to find a goalie to replace the injured Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the Ducks decided to recall Nathan Marsters from their minor-league affiliate in Portland, Maine, because the Pirate starter Jani Hurme would have had to clear waivers before joining the team in Calgary.

Marsters flew in from Portland on Friday morning. While at Portland, he posted a 23-9-2 record with a 3.10 goals-against average in 37 games.

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Midway through the season, the Ducks made it clear that they would rely on their cadre of youngsters after trading away veterans such as Sergei Fedorov and Petr Sykora.

The Ducks had six first-year players in their lineup for Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round series. All of them made key contributions to their record-breaking regular season, but Friday night became their first experience of playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Forward Teemu Selanne said he got a sense that rookies such as Chris Kunitz, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry would handle the pressure.

“They seem to be very comfortable and fine,” Selanne said. “I think that’s a good sign. You don’t see any nervousness or anything like that.”

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Selanne remembered his first playoff game when he was a 22-year-old rookie with the Winnipeg Jets.

“It was against Vancouver,” he said. “I was nervous because it was very exciting. The waiting was the worst. You can’t wait until it starts.”