Speculations turn into reality as Los Angeles Kings fires head coach Terry Murray -NHL Update
Only a few days after speculations arose that the Los Angeles Kings was looking to shuffle around its coaching management, which could result in the organisation letting go of Terry Murray, it turned into a reality for the coach as the club fired him on Monday night, December 12, 2011.
When asked earlier, that very morning, about rumours going around the National Hockey League (NHL), that he would face the same fate as many have went through already this season, Murray ignored the speculations and replaced them with his motivation.
"We're trying to win hockey games," Murray said. "I'm going to approach every game and every practice the same as if we had seven or eight wins in a row. You want to win the next one. So that's the approach that I take every day, every game. I like the way we're playing. The effort, the compete, the intensity, the chances that we're getting -- everything is in place. We just have to find a way to get a 'W.' "
Los Angeles Kings' general manager, Dean Lombardi, made the announcement Monday afternoon that Terry Murray would be temporarily replaced by assistant coach, John Stevens, until they are able to find a befitting alternative.
Now the number of coaches fired in the 2011-2012 NHL regular season have risen to five, thus far including Murray with Bruce Boudreau of Washington Capitals, Randy Carlyle of Anaheim Ducks, Paul Maurice of Carolina Hurricanes and Davis Payne.
Despite the necessity to replace the coaching, the Kings' GM described it as something very difficult to carry out due to Murray being a person who single handedly carried this organisation forward.
"I don't think words can ever describe how hard something like this is," said Kings' general manager Dean Lombardi.
At the moment, the Los Angeles Kings stand at the 12th position with 30 points, under Calgary Flames, making them one of the lowest ranked in the league, which is obviously opposite to the planning they came in with this season, earlier in October.
Los Angeles will be playing its first game without coach Terry Murray when it faces Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
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