Shots…and shots and shots

The Kings, as you probably know, generated 52 shots on goal Thursday night against Detroit. Now, the Red Wings’ defense had been porous in its previous two games, allowing 36 shots against Phoenix and 35 against Anaheim, but the Kings did take it to an entirely new level. To get 27 shots in one period is not normal.

So today, Terry Murray was asked a simple question. In order to generate that many shots on goal, what did the Kings do well?

MURRAY: “The chances for and against, the number — we break it down — it’s phenomenal. Quality chances. You have to bring the puck out against a pretty good forechecking team, and I thought we were very good in that area last night. It was good patience. The weak side was there for us and we found it. We came up the ice and broke out as five, and made the right decisions through the middle of the ice.

“Again, as I think I mentioned after the game last night, their offensive production is down simply because of circumstances now, with free agency and injuries. They’re more structured to play a good defensive game now. Through the middle of the ice, they had four, five guys in that perfect look, so you have to make a strong decision and make hard plays.

“We did that, and as a result of that, we were able to maintain our speed to recover pucks and get plays going to the net. Smytty did a real good job, just using the net, finding people in the slot, bringing it to the net himself, finding our low-to-high, the D-men. Everything was being done the right way. Just a very hot goaltender last night.”