The other goalie

For all the talk about Jonathan Quick’s perceived struggles of late, don’t forget that Roberto Luongo hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire either. Overall this season, Quick’s numbers (2.54 goals-against average, .907 save percentage) are almost identical to Luongo’s numbers (2.57, .913), and while Quick has allowed 25 goals in his last 23 periods, Luongo has allowed 28 goals in his last 24 periods, including eight in the April 1 loss to the Kings. Of course, that’s highly unlikely to be duplicated, but Terry Murray talked today about the keys to putting pressure on Luongo.

MURRAY: “You have to get traffic against any goalie in the National Hockey League. That’s something that we’ve been getting away from after the Olympic break. I thought there were probably seven or eight games when the shot count went down, and it was primarily because we weren’t getting any kind of net presence established. We’ve pushed that here in the last seven or eight games. It’s getting better. I like what I’ve seen in the second half of games, in our comebacks and the win the other night in Colorado. That’s going to be very important, to get to Luongo, to battle hard and get your territory established and get pucks to the net.”

Also, in particular, Murray talked about the benefit of having a player such as Ryan Smyth, who, along with Michal Handzus, is one of the Kings’ best players at parking himself in front of the net in order to provide gritty play.

MURRAY: “At the net is really important. Ryan Smyth has brought that all year long. That’s kind of the area where he plays his best hockey, right on top of the net, on top of the crease, making plays from the back of the net, looking for tips and redirections. He’s got as good a stick for tips as anybody in the National Hockey League. He’s going to be a big, big part of this in the offensive zone.”