Kings hope to capitalize on home ice

In the past two years, playing on home ice hasn’t been much of an advantage for the Kings. Two years ago against Vancouver, the Kings went 1-2 at home and 1-2 on the road (with one overtime win and one overtime loss). Last year against San Jose, the Kings went 0-3 at home and 2-1 on the road (with one overtime loss). Will the Kings finally have playoff success at home? The Kings won two grueling games on the road in order to put themselves in a strong position in this first-round playoff series against Vancouver. The key, now, is to take advantage of that position by winning at home. The Kings know that if the Canucks win tomorrow, they will have all the momentum, and they would be have renewed enthusiasm at the thought of reclaiming home-ice advantage in Game 4, Drew Doughty, Jarret Stoll and Dustin Brown talked about the importance of not letting it get to that.

DOUGHTY: “We’ve just got to play as if the series if just starting and we’ve got home-ice advantage. It’s Game 1. We’re not up two-nothing. If anything, we’ve got to act like we’re down a couple (games). We can’t go in there relaxing, or taking them too easy, because they’re going to come even harder. This is going to be the hardest game for us. We still haven’t played our best hockey. Going into Sunday, we’ve got to play our best. … The fans are going to be great. They always have been, in the playoffs the last two years. They’re so loud and energetic. It’s so easy to show up for the game and get out there for the first shift, because the crowd is just going nuts. It’s a ton of fun. Just playing on home ice, sleeping in your own bed, those sort of things are huge for us. We have to win these two games. They’re important, especially being at home.’’

STOLL: “We haven’t played that well on home ice in the playoffs recently, so we’ve got to change that. That has to happen right now, starting tomorrow. We have to have that killer instinct, come out and just play well, play the way we did the last 20 games. Simple, smart. We’re not going to think any different, road or home. Just play the game. Play the game, be smart. Our fans are going to be great. They’re going to be pumped up. Use that energy, use that atmosphere to our advantage.’’

BROWN: “Historically, for this team, in recent playoffs we haven’t played well at home. It’s important to draw attention to that and understand that we’ve done a good job of getting two wins, but there are a lot of areas we can get better at, and that it’s very important to take advantage of home ice.’’