Mitchell postgame quotes (April 7)

Willie Mitchell’s postgame thoughts…

(on facing Vancouver…)

MITCHELL: “To be honest with you, I haven’t really thought about it. We were trying to win a game here tonight. We had a home-and-home with these guys, and we had an opportunity to win our division, which hasn’t been done for a long time for the Kings organization. We were really pushing for that. We fell short in overtime against a good team over there. I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest with you.’’

(on whether they knew, pregame, that Phoenix had clinched the division…)
MITCHELL: “We knew. This time of year, there’s no nights off in terms of preparation. You look at the West, one through eight, they’re all great teams. We wanted to finish on a strong note going in, and we kind of let one slip there. We controlled the game for most of the game, but late, they put the puck in the net a few more times and got a few more bounces. We’ll have to reset for what it’s all about, the postseason.’’

(on losing another third-period lead…)
MITCHELL: “I don’t know. You’re so involved in your own game, so you don’t pay attention to that. You try to prepare and do the right things yourself, to try to contribute as much as you can to the team. They played a few more pucks late, against us. They got a few bounces, and that’s hockey. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. Tonight, we had some quality chances early on. I think it’s not so much what we did late. I think, maybe sometimes, it’s what you do earlier, when you are taking it to a team, controlling the play. When you’ve got a team down, that’s when you need to finish them and score the next goal. If you don’t, you put everything into the equation. You put luck sometimes. It could be a high stick that changes the game, a lucky bounce similar to what they got tonight, from the point. You put yourself into that situation, where luck comes into the equation. That’s where you need to put your foot on the gas and build on your lead, so it takes belief out of them. That’s something we need to work on, is just keeping on the gas instead of letting up a little bit, and then we’ll be better at finishing these.’’