Back in Philly, Kings coach Murray reminisces

It had been a long time since Terry Murray coached against a Flyers team in Philadelphia.

He's been a player here, a head coach, a scout and an assistant coach, and he has built a lot of memories with the Flyers. Last night Murray returned to the Wachovia Center for the first time as head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.

"It feels good. This is a great building and there are lots of great memories coming back to this building and this city," Murray said. "I was a player, coach, assistant coach, system coach. I really like to remember the last few years here.

"It was fun to be an assistant coach on a young team. We got it together and gave it a big push and got deep into the playoffs last year and I kind of reminisce with the players here as to what's possible. It's a good feeling coming here."

For Murray, the Kings' current situation is very similar to the Flyers' when Ken Hitchcock took over. They have a lot of young players; at the start of the season they were the youngest team in the league.

So far Murray has done a pretty good job. The Kings came into last night's game just four points out of a playoff spot.

And it has been a challenge from the beginning, something general manager Dean Lombardi and assistant GM Ron Hextall expected.

"It's a good challenge," Murray said. "It's a good challenge for a veteran coach. That's why I'm excited about it. When the opportunity came to interview for the job and what was laid out by Dean and Hexy, there was no pulling of any punches.

"It was very clear and difficult and hard, and I was excited about that. It was exactly what I wanted to do as a veteran coach, was take on that kind of challenge.

"It's been good; the players have been tremendous," Murray added. "There's been a great response and the younger players have really grown. It's nice to see players from juniors and different organizations and the guys we did have in place, come together and grow."

The Flyers are expecting Danny Briere to return to the lineup tomorrow at home against Montreal, but it's not clear when Kimmo Timonen will be back.

Timonen missed his second game last night with the flu. He is the eighth player this year to miss games due to the bug. *