The Los Angeles Kings and GM Dean Lombardi finally pulled the trigger on head coach Terry Murray, after a 13-12-4 start with one of the most talented Kings teams in franchise history. Here’s Rich Hammond’s breaking of the sacking moments ago…
The Kings will announce shortly that Terry Murray has been fired as coach and that John Stevens will take over as interim coach. Dean Lombardi will be available to the media today, so stay tuned for further quotes and information…
Under Murray, the Kings struggled offensively, falling to a league worst 2.21 goals per game, despite acquiring offensive stars such as Mike Richards and Simon Gagne. The firing also comes at big time for the Kings as they try to salvage their season ahead of a treacherous four game road trip that sees the Kings start in Boston with the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
What now for the Kings? Randy Carlyle has been a name bantered about for the two weeks since he was relieved of his duties in Anaheim, and the perfect choice according to friend of the program, Bobby Scribe at LAKingsNews.com, who has long called for the Murray firing. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Darryl Sutter’s name is in the ring but he brings up the Kings ownership as a key factor in the appointing of a leader at the Kings bench.
If Lombardi is hiring Murray’s replacement, some believe Darryl Sutter is a candidate. If owners push…Carlyle could be the man.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 12, 2011
Rumors at that Phillip Anschutz is displeased with the Kings play to start the season and that the firing of Murray may have been called by as high up as Anchutz himself, if not Tim Leiweke. Dreger practically confirms this again, he reports that Dean Lombardi went Dean Lombardi on the Kings:
Dean Lombardi scorched the players in a meeting a short while ago. Very upset he had to fire Murray.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 12, 2011
Why did it take this long for someone to pop a cork?
Is Carlyle even the right guy to take the job? Perhaps. He’s shown in the past that he can run an offensive system and interim John Stevens doesn’t change the Kings’ forechecking one bit, although he should be retained to maintain the Kings’ stout defensive system.
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Michael Castillo is an aspiring writer and artist from Los Angeles. He's currently studying at the University of Southern California. Castillo's work has appeared on ESPN, Yahoo! Sports and SB Nation. He's a National College Football columnist for FanSided.com, and is the Co-Lead Editor at Reign of Troy, covering USC athletics. He is also an Editorial Director for FanSided's College Network, and a member of the Football Writers' Association of America.
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