It’s All About Respect

DENVER —  King Coach Andy Murray was contrite Sunday about his late-game and postgame verbal sparring with Colorado Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley on Saturday. Not that it happened, but that it distracted from the Kings’ 3-1 victory.

“I told our team this morning,” he said, “that if the exchange did anything to decrease the spotlight on their efforts or the courage they showed in the hockey game, then I felt bad about it.”

He also said that, in the same situation again, he’d react the same way. He objected to Hartley’s insertion of a thuggish lineup into the closing seconds of a game that already had been decided.

“I’ve always believed that the three most important things in the game are, you always respect the game, you always respect your own players and you always respect your opponent,” Murray said. “And I felt that was twice in this series that that scenario had come up and those things had been disregarded.”

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Murray may have gone out on a limb and guaranteed a Game 6 victory for the Kings, but he wasn’t the only one feeling confident.

“We felt like we were definitely going to win,” defenseman Mathieu Schneider said Sunday. “We got off to a great start [by scoring two goals in the first 6 minutes 44 seconds]. That’s what we have to do tomorrow night.

“We’re a much better team when we play with the lead. Against that team in particular, you have to get the lead. It’s very important to get the lead and make them take chances, make them make mistakes.”

In 13 playoff games between the Kings and Avalanche over the last two seasons, the team that has scored first has won every time.

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King veteran Kelly Buchberger played on the Edmonton Oiler team that squandered a 3-1 series lead and lost a first-round series against the Kings in 1989. In 1998, he was on the winning side as the Oilers overcame a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Avalanche in the first round.

“We thought that we were done after we were down, 3-1, but we knew that we were still in every game and we found a way to win,” he said. “It was just one of those things where we kept believing we could do it.

“It’s the same mind-set here. Guys really believe we can beat them, and when you have that focus and that mind-set, you’re going to have a good result. But then again, we’re playing the Stanley Cup champions and they know how to win.”