May 19 practice quotes: Anze Kopitar

On whether he’s in favor of returning to Los Angeles between Games 3 and 4:
“Yeah, I think it’s good. It was a six o’clock game, and we were home at pretty much the same time as we would coming from Staples on a regular night. It’s a 50 minute flight, so it’s pretty quick. I think it’s good for us.”

On the late calls in Game 3:
“I mean, it is what it is. Not happy, but we can’t do anything about it. Again, it’s the position that we put ourselves into that is mind-boggling. It’s not the way we want to play and be in that situation. We came close to killing it off, but we’ve said it all along, and before the series – you can’t give them too many opportunities, because they will score, and they did.”

On whether it was odd that there were a glut of penalties at the end of the game:
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m the right guy to talk about calls being made and calls not being made. It’s a game. You’ve got to go out there and compete and play in between the whistles, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

On whether he prefers games that are tightly or loosely officiated:
“It’s playoffs. I guess everybody gets away with a little bit in the playoffs, and maybe it’s a little more grabbing and throwing your body around than normal. That’s the way it’s going to be called. I’m fine either way.”

On how the team will be able to put the calls behind them:
“Regroup, refocus and get back at it on Tuesday. It’s going to be a big game for us, so we want to make sure we’re ready. I’m sure they’ve gained some momentum from last night, and we’re certainly going to try and stomp on it right off the get-go, have a good start and play the game.”

On what the team wants to improve on:
“I think we’ve got to throw more shots at Niemi. I don’t think we’ve done a very good job throughout the series, with the exception of the last seven minutes in Game 2 where we peppered him because we were desperate. So we’ve got to play like that right off the start.”

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