Fight in front

After the Ducks’ skate this morning, coach Randy Carlyle talked about his team’s need to make things tougher for Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, to get traffic in front of the net and not allow Quick to see shots cleanly. That’s pretty much the goal of every team, against every goalie, but given the size of some of the Ducks’ forwards, they’re more equipped than most to get it done. The Kings can counter with Quick, who also has good size and doesn’t get pushed around, in front of the net, the way smaller goalies might. After his team’s skate, Terry Murray talked about the need for his players to play a strong game in front of their net.

MURRAY: “That’s it right there. You just have to do a strong job in front of the net. And you’re not going to eliminate it. They’ve got some great players over there. You’ve got big bodies and you’re going to try to limit the number of times they can get position, but your defensemen, your low tracker, they have to work very hard to get proper body positioning. We’ve got to get in some lanes up top, with the defensemen. They’ve got some guys who are very mobile up there. They do a lot of rotating in the top, so they can find some seams, but we have to work hard on the checking part of the game. But that’s hockey. Going to the net and battling hard, that’s the exciting part of the game.”