On whether the Kings were the quicker team in Game 3:
“I think it’s tougher to be quicker than the Blackhawks. They’re a speed team. I thought we established what we wanted to do early. We continued that through the whole game. That showed up on the score sheet.”
On having to eventually win a game in Chicago:
“You’re right, we’re going to have to eventually win one there. That’s not our focus right now. I can’t explain why we’re unbeaten at home or why we were 10-1 last year. As you know, we’ve cut it in half. Now it’s important for us to even it up. Eventually, as you said, we’re going to have to win one there. We’re not focused on that yet. We’re focused on Thursday.”
On the satisfaction of winning a game in a “must-win situation”:
“We know the stats, the teams that have come back from 3-0. It’s not very good. I said before the game, it wasn’t a must-win, but it was a must-win. We responded with a great effort, top to bottom. We got it done.”
On the team’s ability to disrupt Chicago’s spacing:
“We were just quicker. We were quicker everywhere on the ice. They’re a transition team. They’re an explosive offensive team if you give them opportunities. We limited their time and space because we were on our toes instead of our heels. We were able to spend a lot more time in the offensive zone than we did in the first two games. In turn, we were able to make some things in there.”
On whether the key to beating Chicago “in the long haul” is physical play:
“I’m not sure what the key is. Certainly that’s a big part of it. You have to be hard on their top players. You have to be hard on their defense because they’re very mobile. If you don’t hit them, they’re going to jump by you and get an opportunity. We tried to do that especially early.”
On whether the team made adjustments for Game 3:
“There’s always adjustments to be had. Jarret was the center tonight. Sometimes when you switch lines up, play with different players, you’re able to simplify a lot more, play more of a straight-ahead game. We were able to get pucks behind them. In turn, as I said, have a lot more offensive zone time.”
On earning breaks such as the Voynov broken stick goal:
“I think for the most part the result on the scoreboard is usually the result of how the team played. If you didn’t play great, you’re not usually going to win. I thought we just played better than them tonight. They played better than us the first two games. Sometimes those go in. It was a broken-bat single that went in from Voynov there. Hey, we had a lot of zone time against them. That was one that paid off.”
On Jonathan Quick’s late third period save on Bryan Bickell:
“That was awesome. I came to him after the game. I don’t know if everyone saw it. That was an amazing save to preserve the lead. That’s what you need. You’re going to need that, especially since we didn’t put that team away, when we were up 2-0, didn’t get that goal on a four-minute power-play, so had to grind it out towards the end. That was a huge save. It’s like a broken record with Quick. We keep saying, yeah, it was a big save. There’s not much more you can say.”
On winning a narrow game:
“We don’t care how we got it done. Everyone has been saying the Kings have maybe grinded their way through a lot harder than it was last year. It is. It’s supposed to be hard. We don’t care if it’s 5-0 or 2-1, which it usually is. If it’s another 2-1 game, we’ll take that as well.”
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