Murray Says Power Play Needs a Return to Basics

The Kings have lost their juice.

After leading the NHL in power-play efficiency last season, they have converted only three of 31 opportunities in their first five games, one of 23 since going two for eight in their opener against the Phoenix Coyotes. Their 9.7% success rate is far off last season’s 20.7% pace and ranks among the worst in the league.

One obvious problem, it would seem, is that they’ve played the last three games without high-scoring winger Ziggy Palffy, sidelined because of a strained groin. Without Palffy, they are 0 for 15 with the man advantage.

“We played six or seven weeks without him last year and we kept our percentage up there,” Coach Andy Murray said Sunday after the Kings went 0 for 6 in Saturday’s 2-2 tie against the Vancouver Canucks. “He’s a good player on the power player, but if he’s not there we’ve got to get it done with other people.

“We’re just making it too easy on the penalty killers with our lack of quick puck movement. We’re not retrieving as many loose pucks as we should when we rim them in. It’s not major, but they’re all little things that add up.”

No major changes are planned.

“We don’t want to confuse the issue,” Murray said. “There are basic things you can do on the power play and we have to continually work at it. I think we want to stay with our concept....

“Normally when you’re struggling you go back to basics and that’s [to] play shot and rebound, get pucks to the net, get traffic and bang one by them.”

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Palffy, not expected to sit out any games after he was injured Oct. 12, is eligible to come off the injured list before Wednesday night’s game at Detroit, but Murray said his status is still uncertain. “With certain types of injuries, you just don’t know,” Murray said.... Saturday’s tie ended the Kings’ nine-game winning streak against opponents that had played at Anaheim the night before playing the Kings.... Murray, on the Kings’ decision to recall Derek Armstrong from the minors instead of veteran Steve Heinze, who scored eight of his 15 goals on the power play last season: “We need to bring up the players who are our best players down there.” Armstrong’s goal Saturday was his first in the NHL since the 1997-98 season.

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Todd Bailey, son of the late King scout Ace Bailey, has been hired by the Kings as a part-time scout. His father, the Kings’ director of pro scouting, was killed last year in the attacks on the World Trade Center.