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Kings’ game-day skate: Stoll returns, Scuderi isn’t ready, Purcell taken off the first line

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The Teddy Purcell first-line experiment is over, Jarret Stoll will play against the Blackhawks tonight at Staples Center after missing two games because of a groin injury, and Rob Scuderi is doubtful because he hasn’t fully recovered from what’s believed to be an ankle injury.

Purcell, placed on the top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams by Coach Terry Murray in hopes that he might lift his sagging play, was moved back to the second line with Stoll and Dustin Brown after he failed to create any sparks in two games.

Then again, there aren’t many sparks being created by Kopitar or Williams. Each has no goals and one assist in the four games since left wing Ryan Smyth left the lineup with what’s believed to be injured ribs. Kopitar has gone eight games without a goal and Williams has gone seven. Alexander Frolov will play the left side with them tonight.

“I wanted to give Teddy the opportunity to play there because I liked what I was seeing in the practices. He had good jump,” Murray said. “Whenever I see that kind of energy, normally there’s some offensive results. He had some opportunities, we know, but statistically at the end of the day, there was nothing there to look at. So that’s why I’m making the change.”

Purcell has gotten more chances and ice time than his numbers warrant: He had two goals in the first three games of the season but hasn’t scored in 21 games since then and has been getting time on the second power-play unit.

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It seems logical to think the Kings might be patient with him to avoid a repeat of the Matt Moulson scenario: They jettisoned Moulson — also a big and skillful forward who didn’t produce — only to see him excel with the Islanders this season, scoring 11 goals and 19 points in his first 26 games.

Murray said his willingness to give Purcell more chances has nothing to do with Moulson and is related to “that creativity and vision” that he has seen in Purcell. “He has a Grade-A skill level in that part of the game,” Murray said.

Unfortunately for him and the Kings, he hasn’t showed it.

Smyth has been doing some limited off-ice workouts, such as riding an exercise bike, and might resume skating Monday. However, Murray said he doesn’t expect Smyth to return before the original four-week projected recovery time. Smyth was injured on Nov. 16.

Murray said he talked to Kopitar Saturday about taking initiative during Smyth’s absence and returning to the punishing areas around the net. He also said he didn’t anticipate the production of Kopitar and Williams would drop off as much as it has.

Neither did Williams.

‘As good as Ryan is I don’t think you can use that as an excuse, as the reason Kopi and I aren’t scoring. Maybe it is, but there’s no way we can think that way. We’re good enough players that that shouldn’t be an issue,” Williams said.

“Do we miss him? Yes. But he’s not the sole reason why we score goals. You’re not going to have a full 82 games when everything’s going your way. When Ryan was in, everything worked for us. Everything was going good. You knew that at some point in the season there’s always going to be a little lull. The quicker you can get out of that the better off you’re going to be. Definitely I’m in that right now. I guess you can say Kopi is too, given the production that he’s given so far.

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“We’ve got to snap out of it. We’re thinking just a quick little snap out, where you have a game where everything goes well. That eventually is going to happen for us. just got to stay positive. Same with Brownie too. We were talking about it yesterday. You get some chances in a game and you miss them, and you say, ‘Aw, jeez, how did I miss that?’ and you dwell on that. You can’t. You’ve got to forget it and the next time you get an opportunity, put it in. we’re trying to stay positive and work hard. That’s all we can do.”

No stalling for Stoll

Stoll said it was “probably a good thing” that he missed the last two games because the healing time has left him at 100%

He returns to a team that has lost three of its last four games and is beginning to see opponents catch up in terms of the number of games played. He said he’s not worried about other teams cashing in on their games in hand.

“I don’t think we can worry about anyone else but our team,” he said. “We know we haven’t played as consistently as we’ve wanted to maybe the last two weeks, therefore we’re not getting the wins, we’re not getting the points out of games that we should be getting.

‘That’s a concern, for sure, but we’ve got to keep looking forward to our next game and keep preparing for our next game and hopefully we’ll have a good, solid full game and play 60 minutes and get a win and there’s no better team tonight than against Chicago. Play well, get a win and hopefully get our wheels rolling here.

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“We’ve kind of lost a little bit of our jump, maybe, so to speak, but we’ve got to get that back. Tonight’s a good start for that.”

Johnson getting more ice time

Defenseman Jack Johnson played a season-high 28 minutes, 21 seconds at Vancouver on Thursday — and in a game that didn’t go to overtime.

That’s a lot of ice time, especially since it followed 26:57 worth of duty the night before at Edmonton.

“It didn’t feel that way, which is good, obviously,” Johnson said of his season-high minutes. “I think when you play that much it helps you. You’re into the game. I think you get stronger as the game goes on when you’re out there repeatedly. It felt good.”

Murray said Johnson has earned the extra ice time and responsibility.

“He’s played very well. He’s played hard. He’s competed really well in this last road trip and we like that,” Murray said. “That’s our way of saying, keep with it. Stay with it. Be physical. Play with the checking game as the priority and he’s playing like that we’re going to see good things happen in his game as we keep moving forward with it. Offense, he’s got that ability already.”

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Murray said he’s not worried about Johnson’s offensive contributions. He has two goals, six points and a minus-12 defensive rating in his first 26 games.

“All I want him to do right now is be a good defenseman,” Murray said. “We talked about that. Specifically. And in our role descriptions before the start of year, that this is the focus that we want from him. The offense is there. It’s going to happen. He’s on the power play and he is jumping up at the right time. Good things will take place on that side of it. Don’t force the issue. Just be a good checking defenseman. Be hard. Be gritty to play against. ...We like what we’re seeing right now.”


More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott

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