Blame doesn’t fall on Quick’s shoulders

After Game 3, Terry Murray was adamant that he did not consider pulling goalie Jonathan Quick from the game, and Quick was the first goalie off the ice in practice today, negating any thought that he might not start Game 4 tomorrow night. Still, Quick did allow six goals in Game 3, including five in the second third period. Only twice in his two-year stint as the Kings’ clear-cut No. 1 goalie did Quick allow six goals in the regular season, but Murray dismissed any idea that Quick should shoulder significant blame for the loss…

MURRAY: “Heck, look, when you give up five goals in one period, everybody’s got to be better. You need a spectacular save. Some of those goals, he had absolutely no chance on. They’re dot-to-dot passes, lateral feeds that are for one-timers. That’s where you need an extraordinary effort, save. So you don’t look at your goaltender and say that he’s the reason why anything happened. It’s six guys on the ice. It becomes a real team loss, if you want to put it that way, in that second period. Again, it was no good. It was embarrassing, the way we played, and we’ve got to move on.”

As for Quick, he did what goalies are trained to do: look ahead.

QUICK: “I thought we were over it after the second period. The playoffs are games where you can’t sulk, you can’t think about what could have happened the play before. You move on, and I thought we did a good job of that in the third period. We came into the locker room a little disappointed after the second period, but I thought we rebounded pretty well in the third and we played a pretty good third there. So that’s it. … There’s no reason not to feel upbeat. We’re playing in a tournament right now that everybody wants to play in. We have the opportunity to be a part of this, and there’s no reason not to be upbeat. We’re not down 3-0. It’s a 2-1 series. We’re right there. So tomorrow is going to be a big game and we’ve got to be ready for that.”