At practice today, Kings fans were still a hot topic.
As you’re probably heard by now, coach Terry Murray was very peeved after the game last night – specifically about fans booing the team off the ice heading into the second intermission.
During his super short post-game press conference yesterday, part of his quote was “That is the most embarrassing thing I have ever been through. That’s the worst I’ve ever been through, in all the years I’ve been coaching. I’ve been behind the bench almost 3,000 hockey games in the NHL, and booed off the ice by your own fans at the end of the second period, here after this road trip, going 4-0 in hard places, very disappointing.”
Today, when asked about his comments last night, well – it was a little softer…
“I was very upset about how things went last night, with the way we played right from the very start of the game. The turnovers, being outbattled along the boards, dot to boards, giving up the great scoring chances we did. Our power play, right at the start, we have an opportunity to do something and we don’t. We turn the puck over, we go offside on it right at the start. There’s just a lot of things that were frustrating. And obviously the fact that we had six shots at the end of the second period was glaring at me the whole game. Then to give up that late goal, it was a reaction by a very frustrated coach. It’s just disappointing. That’s the last thing you want to hear, really. Going into the dressing room you’re trying to find a way to start a fire there, to get a good 20 minutes of hockey. If that’s what you go into the room with, that’s probably what you’re remembering as much as anything else that’s happened during the game. So, I was frustrated. Look, I’ve said this many times – we have great fans here, I know that. They mean a lot to this hockey club. They’ve brought a lot of energy, a lot of emotion to our games and helped us through a lot of difficult times. The atmosphere in our building from the middle of the year last season, all the way through the playoffs, has been incredible – because of the fans. So, I overreacted, probably. You don’t want to drag that (the booing) into the reason why (the team performed poorly), but I did. There’s nothing I can do about it now. It’s never the right thing to throw stuff at your fans. I know that. It was a night to forget.”
More notes from practice coming up later this afternoon.
The Mayor
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