Reaction to Kopitar injury

Here’s the reaction from the Kings’ locker room to the loss of Anze Kopitar to a broken ankle…

DUSTIN BROWN
“He’s our best player. We’ve got to find a way, either way. Injuries happen during the year. You don’t want to have your best player go down, but if that’s the case, we need to shoulder the responsibility collectively and find a way. No other team is going to feel sorry for us.

“We’ll maybe find out what we’re made of. You have our top two scorers possibly out. … That’s part of an 82-game schedule, and we have to find a way to keep going as a team.”

RYAN SMYTH
“Not one guy can replace a guy like Kopitar. Everybody has to collectively come together and regroup. Everybody has got to fill a good role and it’s all about opportunity.”

TERRY MURRAY
“He’s your top player, your top forward. There’s quite a hole that’s going to be there now, with him out of the lineup for this length of time. But I’ve been through these kinds of things before, with top guys being out because of injuries. It’s an opportunity. Other guys step up. The character of the team needs to step up. Everybody needs to do the right things and, just talking about the way we finished up the game in the third period, that’s critical now. You’ve got to trust your structure and your system and give it the best opportunity you can, as a group now, to finish games off and play the right way.”

(on the possibility of calling up a player…)
“That will be something we discuss.”