A win, but room for improvement

The Kings certainly left Detroit on Monday night with a good feeling — a 5-0 win over one of the NHL’s premier teams will do that — but it wasn’t all roses for the Kings. Other than the mastery of goalie Jonathan Quick, the Kings were arguably outplayed for the first two periods, and they allowed the Red Wings an astronomical 51 shots on goal. So while nobody is going to dwell too long on the negatives in a big win, Terry Murray said there certainly are some things that the Kings can clean up.

MURRAY: “Yeah, it is a lot of shots, no question about that. I look at the game over again, and they end up with two, three, sometimes even the fourth shot off the original shot. It’s just a quick, two-foot rebound that’s just laying there. And they’re so determined to arrive at the net with heavy sticks that they’re able to move that shot-clock number pretty quickly. Mind you, I don’t take anything away from their game. They’re an outstanding team. They did a lot of things off the rush. They had a lot of speed through the middle of the ice and an incredible amount of movement off the puck, whether it be a faceoff in our D zone or an entry with possession. They are the best in the league, I think, as to movement off the puck and creating plays.

“So when you play a team that is a premier team in the game, you have to be consistent in your performance, in your execution. If one player, in any part of the system, breaks away and thinks they can try something different or do something different, that team will make you pay a price for it, because they are so experienced. They read the plays so well that any time you hesitate or you do get caught in between, they’re going to make you pay a price on it. And they did. They did several times, and we reviewed that in our team meeting, from faceoff losses in our D zone to all parts of our breakouts and coverage and forecheck systems. We didn’t break away, very far, from structure and system, but there was that one instance, and that’s where they capitalized with solid play against us.”