Los Angeles Kings Name Murray Coach

General manager Dean Lombardi introduced Murray to the Los Angeles media Thursday afternoon, calling the Kings’ head coaching position “the toughest job in the National Hockey League, right now.”

Terry Murray's Experience

Murray, who comes to the Kings after serving as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers the past four seasons, has amassed a career head coaching record of 360-288-89 in 737 games with the Washington Capitals (1990-94), Flyers (1994-97) and Florida Panthers (1998-2001), and has led his teams to the playoffs in nine of his 10 seasons as a head coach.

“I’m coming in to this job with my eyes wide open,” said the 57-year old Murray, who takes over the reins from Marc Crawford, who guided Los Angeles to a 59-84-21 record in two seasons behind the bench. “It’s going to be hard. I’ll tell you that right up front, right now. I know that. I know it’s going to be difficult, I know there’s going to be some very hard and some very long nights.”

Kings Suffered in 2007-08

The Kings finished the 2007-08 season in last place in the Western Conference with a record of 32-43-7, and the club hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2001-02 campaign.

But Murray has been in this position before. When he took over the Flyers, the team had missed the postseason for five straight years. In his first season with the club, he guided Philadelphia to the conference finals. Two years later he had the team in the finals against the Detroit Red Wings.

In Florida, he took over a team that finished in 25th place out of 26 clubs in 1997-98, and led them back to the playoffs just two years later.

“There are similarities, absolutely,” he stated. "And that was very inviting to me. I have been through this before.

“I’m hoping to draw on that experience, bring it here, and get things going the right way.”

Solid Core Promising for KingsThe Kings roster is dotted with potential stars, including former first round draftees Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Jack Johnson. Those youngsters form the nucleus of what Murray believes can become a very successful club.

“The team has real good young players right now,” he said. “But we need to get younger. We need to bring in people from the organization - the player’s we’ve drafted - and get them into the process of playing and developing. And I also understand that that process requires a lot of doing it the right way. We have to make sure the players that we’re bringing in are ready to play.”

The former NHL defenseman with the California Golden Seals, Capitals and Flyers, knows there are no shortcuts to success in the league though, and isn’t promising a quick turnaround in Los Angeles. Hard work and better player development will be keys for the Kings.

“But as we work our way through the process and come out through the other side, we’re going to have some young players who are going to be the core players of this hockey club,” he said. “And they’re going to take ownership of this hockey club. And that’s the time when we as coaches, management, we look at it and it’s a time when you say good things now are really going to happen.”

NOTES: Murray is the 22nd head coach in team history…He is the brother of current Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray, but is no relation to Andy Murray, the current St. Louis Blues head coach who guided the Kings from 1999-2006.

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds