Thursday's new lines

The Kings came out with new, surprising forward lines Thursday night, and stayed with them for most of the game. Terry Murray wouldn’t commit to using the same lines tomorrow against Detroit, but today he gave a breakdown of how he thought the top three lines peformed against Buffalo…

(on the Richardson-Kopitar-Simmonds line…)
MURRAY: “The Kopitar line, I really liked the work ethic. And that’s why I did that, put two workers together to really elevate the mindset of that line. Kopi’s play last night, I thought it was really good. It was strong. It was big. Any time he got the puck on his stick, his attitude has, `I’m going to attack. I’m going to make plays. I’m going to challenge people.’ And that’s what I have to have from him every night. If he’s going to be our No. 1 guy — which he is — and play that kind of a game against every team in the remaining part of the games that we have here, he needs to give us that.”

(on the Smyth-Stoll-Brown line…)
MURRAY: “Stoll’s line was pretty good. They end up scoring a huge goal off the attack. It was pretty good. There were some things that I’d like to see them execute a little more consistently. I think you’ve got veteran guys there, and passing, receiving, hitting guys on stride with speed, I’d like to see that 100 percent of the time. I get a little picky in that area. I think they put themselves in some tough situations because of putting pucks behind them, or in their feet, or not receiving that pass in full stride. It takes away from what I’m looking for from those guys.”

(on the Frolov-Handzus-Parse line…)
MURRAY: “Zeus’ line, I liked Zeus’ line. Parse, at the start, was OK, and then he had a couple offensive opportunities. Fro made a couple big plays to him, and I thought the second one, when he got the puck and walked out on that low cut-across, I thought that should have been a goal. I thought Purcell would be the guy who, if he gets that look, he’s going to finish. So I made the change for that reason. A little bit of the board battle too. There were some plays that happened in the early part of the first period that Parse has got to be stronger on. He’s got to pinch down, he’s got to seal that puck and protect it better than he did in a couple of those looks. Frolov, to me, last night was good, really good. I liked the Handzus-Frolov a lot, two big bodies that did a good job for me.”