"There's going to be some very hard nights, very long nights," Murray said, "but as we work our way through the process and come out the other side we're going to have some young players, they're going to be the core players of this hockey club and they're going to take ownership of this hockey club.
"Let's get it started."
Before the process can begin, he said he would have to immerse himself in a media guide so he can put names to the faces of the players who will look to him for guidance and growth.
It's probably just as well that he didn't see much of the Kings last season while they were bad enough to miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive time but not quite awful enough to position themselves for the top overall draft pick.
Or that he hadn't studied their media guide before he agreed to a three-year contract at a relatively paltry $2.65 million.
If he'd looked it up, he would have discovered he will be the 22nd coach in franchise history. Only six have had winning percentages of .500 or better, including Rogie Vachon's 4-3-3 record.
Crawford missed the playoffs in his two seasons behind the bench.
That would be forgivable if the Kings had been competitive last season, but too often they simply gave up.
They didn't have the goaltending or consistently solid team defensive effort that might have made the losses bearable.
No wonder Lombardi called coaching the Kings "the toughest job in the National Hockey League right now."
There's an understatement.
Murray said he's coming into this with his eyes wide open, that he trusts Lombardi and assistant GM Ron Hextall -- like him, former Flyers executives -- and the plan they outlined to him during interviews and meetings last week.
He gets points for not sugar-coating what's ahead because it will be grim for a while.
Young defensemen typically take longer to develop than young forwards, and the young defensemen who carry the Kings' hopes -- Jack Johnson, Thomas Hickey and Drew Doughty -- will make many mistakes.
Murray can polish them or ruin them.
He can turn the Kings into a better team or leave them a wreck.
"You're going to have to go through a lot," he said. "A lot of pain. Hard nights, long nights, pain.
"Psychologically, young players, how they deal with the issues of the NHL, physically, mentally. How they're dealing with being a pro player. We have to bring that along the right way."
If he can do that, he could be Toe Blake's brother and no one would care.
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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.
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Kings general manager says new Coach Terry Murray has the "toughest job in the NHL."
