Just call it Moving Day around Kings’ HQ.
The Kings were trying to get out of town –- fast -- before local roads and airspace became snarled by President Obama’s afternoon arrival in Los Angeles. They play Tuesday night against Pittsburgh at Kansas City and Wednesday at Colorado.
Several players were moved out, too. Four were sent off to the minors in Manchester, three others reassigned to their respective junior teams, and another released from his tryout agreement.
Kings Coach Terry Murray had another message, for floundering right wing Scott Parse, along the lines of moving. As in, move your feet. Or skates, if you will.
“I’m putting him in a situation with (Jarret) Stoll and (Kyle) Clifford, trying to give him an opportunity, giving him some time,” Murray said Monday. “With the understanding he missed (almost) the whole year last year.
“I’m trying to give him a little more time, a little more compassion, I guess, with what I’m looking at. At the same time, after a couple of games, I need more. I need more work. I need more skating. I need to see him moving his feet, just to show that it is starting to come."
Murray said that Parse has been “reluctant” to grab hold of a position on the third line, and that he would not play in the Kansas City game. The player indicated it was a mental thing more than a physical issue.
“There is something,” Murray said. “I want to talk to him here (today) before he gets away. There’s something going on and I just want to hear what he has to say. Those plays that are happening, that he is not finishing right now are things that he has been able to make with ease in the past.
“He’s a skilled player. He’s got good hands, good vision. He’s always able to make the nice little five-foot, six-foot pass. Right now it’s coming right back down into our zone.”
Staying behind in Los Angeles for treatment will be enforcer Kevin Westgarth and defenseman Jake Muzzin, who did not practice. Muzzin has been out with a stiff neck since last week and Westgarth took a punch to the head in his second-period scrap with Brian McGrattan of the Ducks on Sunday night.
“He (Westgarth) is not going to skate for a couple of days,” Murray said. “We’re going to hold him off the ice and let him settle down for couple of days before getting him going again.”
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The Ducks had the day off but were in housekeeping mode too. They reduced their roster to 30, sending seven players to their minor-league team in Syracuse: Nick Bonino, Mat Clark, Nicolas Deschamps, Peter Holland, Kyle Palmieri, Dan Sexton and Sean Zimmerman.
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--Lisa Dillman
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