Murray Sorely Remembers Last NHL Break

The last time the NHL broke for the Olympics, the Kings nearly lost their coach.

Andy Murray was traveling from his home in Faribault, Minn., early in the morning of Feb. 15 four years ago to watch older son Brady play in a high school hockey tournament in Madison, Wis., when the truck he was driving skidded off an icy patch of Interstate 50 outside Sparta, Wis.

The vehicle was demolished after crashing through a wire fence and rolling several times down an embankment, coming to rest only a few feet from a trout stream after it was stopped by a tree.

Murray, who kicked out a window and crawled out of the wreckage, suffered a concussion, four broken ribs, a separated left shoulder and numerous cuts and scrapes. He needed several weeks to recuperate at his Minnesota home and didn’t return to the Kings until their sixth game after the Olympic break.

This month, though, Murray plans to make the same trip to the same tournament, this time to watch younger son Jordan.

But, the coach added, “I’ll be taking a different route.”

-- Jerry Crowe