Fiset Probably Will Return as No. 2

There is no question who is the No. 1 Kings’ goalie.

It’s Jamie Storr.

There’s no longer any question who the No. 1 King goalie will be when Stephane Fiset recovers from a knee injury, presumably in three to four weeks.

Still Jamie Storr.

“Steph knows when he comes back, if Jamie’s playing well, Jamie’s the No. 1 goalie,” Coach Andy Murray said Thursday. “I wouldn’t be credible as a coach if I did it any other way.”

The key here is the qualifier, “if Jamie’s playing well.” After struggling through several games, then being benched for a couple, Storr has come back strong, with a 4-0-1 record after Thursday’s shutout, having given up only seven goals in the five games. The performance lowered his goals-against average from 3.15 a week ago to 2.53; and his saves percentage neared 90%.

And Storr has been doing it the hard way. Small technical problems have begun to creep into his game, largely because there has been little time to remedy them. The Kings have played a game, practiced a day, played a game . . . for most of the season’s first five weeks.

“You’d like to spend some time working on some things,” said Don Edwards, the team’s goalie consultant and a man Storr gives much credit for his improvement. “But you also don’t want him going on the ice with a lot of stuff on his mind.”

Instead, simplicity--”just stop the puck,” Murray said--is the byword, at least until the Kings get a breather next week. They play Detroit on Saturday, then not again until the following Thursday, their longest respite of the season.

More time will be spent with Storr then.

Until then, he plays with the carrot of No. 1 status in front of him after years of being the heir apparent.

“Steph’s working hard,” Murray said. “When he comes back he might be the best-conditioned athlete in Los Angeles.”

And a backup.

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The Kings lead the NHL in hits.

Going into Thursday’s game, they had 488 hits, led by Mathieu Schneider and Mattias Norstrom with 54 each, tied for fourth in the league’s individual ranks.

The Mighty Ducks’ Vitaly Vishnevski led the NHL in hits with 66 going into Thursday’s play.