Kings GM Dave Taylor was right to fire Andy Murray

	It was only a matter of time before the Kings started to tune out Andy Murray's intensity. Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images
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If you're not a regular observer of the Los Angeles Kings, Tuesday's firing of longtime coach Andy Murray might come off as a bit of a panic move.

After all, the team was holding down a coveted playoff spot in the tightly contested Western Conference when GM Dave Taylor made the call. Sure, the Kings had lost five of their last seven, including the 5-0 hide-tanning administered by Colorado on Monday night. But why risk the turmoil of a new coach with just a dozen games remaining in the regular season?

But the regular season wasn't what concerned Taylor -- making the playoffs for the first time in three seasons was his motivation. With so much on the line, tying the can to Murray was the best move he could make to save both the year and maybe his own job.

Taylor looked around the Western Conference, where only six points separated fifth from 10th on Tuesday, and realized his team was spiraling in the wrong direction. He sat tight during a seven-game losing streak before the Olympic break, watched as the Kings' power play grew so woefully inept that it started sucking the team's confidence during five-on-five play as well. He sat idle while the penalty kill coughed up more goals than that of all but two other teams.

So, with a four-day break in the schedule and a ridiculous grind ahead, he gassed Murray -- a guy whose work was deemed Adams Award-worthy earlier in the season -- and replaced him with John Torchetti, a guy who won't be confused with Scotty Bowman but who is regarded as someone with a good handle on special teams play. That quality alone should make him a popular choice among Kings fans.

Defenders will say Murray's biggest failing was that he was in charge of a group of players who couldn't stay healthy. There's certainly something to that. When the Kings were on top of the Pacific Division earlier in the season, Murray had a full complement of stars on whom he could call. Heading into the stretch, key performers such as Alexander Frolov, Pavol Demitra and Craig Conroy -- basically, the Kings' first line -- were sidelined.

And expecting a goaltending tandem of Mathieu Garon and Jason Labarbera to be reliable for 82 games, as Taylor obviously did, was about as sensible as Paris Hilton's wardrobe. It's tough for any coach to win under those conditions

But it's more accurate to suggest that Murray's act had simply run its course. His demanding style and attention to defense made the Kings a much more difficult team to play against -- and much more difficult to play for.

Murray never let up on the whip. The playoff-style intensity he required allowed the Kings to get off to that early Pacific Division lead but is almost impossible to maintain over the course of a long season. And when you consider Murray's lengthy tenure in L.A., it's no wonder the guys eventually tuned him out, just as the Dallas Stars tuned out the equally motivational Ken Hitchcock.

Just as damning was Murray's unwillingness to alter his approach to special teams play, especially when it became obvious that failings in that area were choking any chance of success. While other clubs used the freedom granted by the new rules to generate speed through the neutral zone and carry the puck into the attack zone on the power play, Murray insisted on playing dump-and-chase with some of the slowest forwards in the league.

The times demanded change, and Murray couldn't meet those demands. So it was time for him to go.

Today, the Kings find themselves in ninth place, but just three points out of fifth. They're off until Saturday, when they host Nashville, one of the league's hottest teams since the break. That gives them three full days to practice under Torchetti, to catch their breath, make some minor adjustments, rediscover the fun of the game and do whatever they can to right their listing ship.

Then comes a brutal stretch of nine games in just 15 days, which will tell the story of their season. If their spot isn't secure by then, Taylor may well find himself getting fitted for a can this summer.