Prior to Saturday night’s contest versus the Sharks, Kings’ forward Scott Parse hadn’t participated in a real game since November – also in San Jose.
Although he came away pointless in his return to game action over the weekend, that’s just fine.
The Kings still won and according to coach Terry Murray, his surgically repaired hip wasn’t bothering him yesterday – saying the medical staff reported “Everything was good. No issues at all.”
So, how about his performance – was Murray happy with what he saw?
“I thought he played pretty well. He showed a lot of confidence with the puck. And he has that, I guess you’d call it a little bit of that ‘inner arrogance’ – which you have to have as a pro athlete, to have confidence in your own game, to play, to know exactly what it is you can do and try to do it. I thought he stepped in and did a pretty decent job.”
He played 10:17 on Saturday night, was that the goal?
“No. I didn’t really set any kind of a number there, for him in particular. But, I did want to play four lines. The penalty kill, obviously, takes minutes away from the rotation. So, it possibly could be higher if we go through a game five-on-five. But, he didn’t have any problems on the conditioning side of things. I felt strong about that going into the game, making the decision that he would go out and play, that that would not be a concern of mine. And he confirmed it. He looked good, he looked strong though the game. He brought us the offensive part of the game, some skill that I knew he could.”
Parse will be in the line-up again tonight, as Murray is keeping the same line combinations for game six.
And perhaps that can be a lucky number for him – in just his sixth career playoff game, maybe he can add to the list of April 25th post-season moments.
The Mayor
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