The Los Angeles Kings have parted with their head coach to try and give their team some sort of boost. Given the way they've been performing lately, they'll need every boost they can get.
Los Angeles Kings head coach Terry Murray has been relieved of his duties and Kings assistant coach John Stevens will assume interim head coach duties, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today.
Murray, 61, began his head coaching tenure with the Kings in 2008-09 and compiled a 139-106-30 regular season record during his time in Los Angeles. Among the franchise’s all-time head coaches Murray ranks third in wins (139), fourth in games coached (275) and first in winning percentage (.560).
Despite loading up their payroll with high-priced players, the Kings offense has never been worse than it has in recent weeks. The Kings have lost 4 straight games, scored 2 goals or less in 8 straight games, and is averaging a league-low 2.24 goals per game. After starting the season 6-2-1, Los Angeles has gone 7-10-3 in their last 20 games and are 12th overall in the Western Conference. With the Kings about to start a four game road trip, it looks like the organization has decided to cut ties with their manager before the damage to the team's chances to make the playoffs gets any worse.
Stevens is the interim coach, but he's not expected to be there any longer than that unless he totally turns the team around.
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