Murphy’s Top Priority Is Defense : Improving Goals-Against Average Is No. 1 Goal for Kings

VICTORIA, Canada — Mike Murphy is tired of hearing that the Kings are rebuilding.

“The team is rebuilt,” the King coach said. “A lot of good players are in place. And when you’ve got good players, you should have a good team and you should win a lot.”

As much as anyone, though, Murphy realizes that something has to be done about the Kings’ defense.

Only the New Jersey Devils allowed more goals than the Kings did last season, although the Kings’ yield of 341 actually represented almost a 10% improvement over the previous season, when they allowed 389.

“We’re a good offensive team,” Murphy said, noting that only the Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers scored more goals than the Kings last season, “but we’re not a team that can continue to give up 341 goals.

“Goals against (averages) are often a very good judge of where you’re going to finish. When you’re in the middle of the league in goals against, you’re generally going to be there in the standings.

“We feel, as an organization, that we have to cut that figure. It’s urgent. We’ve got to become defensive.”

With that in mind, it’s not surprising that of the six objectives Murphy has outlined for the Kings in his first training camp as head coach, five deal with improving the defense.

They are:

--Assume a defensive focus.

--Reduce turnovers.

--Finish all checks.

--Pressure the puck.

--Move the puck quickly.

--Stick together.

“It’s a very general list,” Murphy said, “but it gives us an outline of what we have to do to be a better team. Actually, we’ve got to do one thing, and that’s improve the defensive focus. The next four things are very much related to improving that focus.”

And improving the defense, he said, doesn’t necessarily mean that the Kings must sacrifice offensive firepower.

“I’m a firm believer that a guy who is in good defensive position is going to be in good offensive position when the attack is created,” he said.

After only a week in camp, Murphy said it was too early to tell if management’s feelings of urgency about assuming a more defensive focus are shared by the players.

“I feel that once we get it into their heads and it becomes their first thought, then we’re going to see the progress on the ice,” Murphy said. “I’m not sure it’s in their heads yet.

“I would say that once the season starts, we’ll be able to see it--whether the players have read those sheets and taken them to heart or whether they’ve discarded them in the waste paper basket.”

Murphy believes that if the Kings improve “5 to 10%” in the areas he has outlined for them, “we’ll be a significantly improved team.”

The ingredients are there for a successful season, he said.

The Kings’ most celebrated off-season acquisitions were both defensemen--Wayne McBean, the No. 4 selection in the draft last June, and Czechoslovakian defector Petr Prajsler.

They also added to the coaching staff Bryan Maxwell, a former National Hockey League defenseman and McBean’s coach last season at Medicine Hat of the Western League.

“Now, we’ve got to win,” said Murphy, who was 13-21-4 after replacing former Coach Pat Quinn last Jan. 10 after it was discovered that Quinn had signed with Vancouver and accepted payment from the Canucks.

“We can’t say we’re going to wait for another first-round pick. We’ve got to do it now. If we don’t do it now, things change quickly, and then we might be rebuilding again.

“My feeling is, this team’s got to make some headway right now. They can’t wait till next year or the following year. There are too many variables there. Too many things change.”

For a coach who is stressing defense, Murphy has taken the offensive.

“I’m very excited about our team, very positive about it,” he said. “We have good young players, maybe the best young players in the league.”

King Notes

The Kings will play eight exhibition games before opening the regular season Oct. 8 at the Forum against the New York Islanders. Included are games at the Forum Sept. 29 against Vancouver and Sept. 30 against Winnipeg and a game against the U.S. Olympic team Oct. 3 at the San Diego Sports Arena. . . . Owner Jerry Buss and team President Bruce McNall flew from Los Angeles to watch Friday night’s game against Vancouver. The teams play again tonight at Victoria. . . . Czech defector Petr Prajsler is the only player whose wife has been allowed to join him in camp. Eva Prajsler is pregnant, and neither she nor her husband speak English. “We wanted him to feel comfortable and not have to be worried about her,” Coach Mike Murphy said, “and we wanted her to be comfortable and not have to be worried about him.” Murphy and the other coaches speak to Prajsler through an interpreter, but they have tried not to bog him down with too much information. “He plays very well instinctively, so we’re trying to build on those instincts,” Murphy said. . . . Murphy said that No. 1 draft choice Wayne McBean will be brought along slowly, “but there’s no question in my mind he’s going to be great,” he said. . . . The biggest surprise in camp, Murphy said, has been right winger Bob Kudelski, a Yale graduate who was cut from the U.S. Olympic team last month. . . . Also impressive among the newcomers, Murphy said, have been goaltenders Mark Fitzpatrick, who played with McBean last season at Medicine Hat and had a record of 31-11-4, and Glenn Healy, who was 25-21-0 at New Haven. “And the two players who we’re looking to for future stardom are McBean and Prajsler,” he said . . . Murphy said that as many as 8 of the 53 players in camp will be cut this weekend. . . . Defenseman Mark Hardy left camp and returned home to Los Angeles to be with his wife, Krissy, after she suffered a miscarriage. The couple were married last February.