On whether he felt the Kings played with a lack of desperation:
“No. [Reporter: At all?] No.”
On whether Chicago shut L.A. down in the third period, or whether L.A. shut itself down:
“Yeah, I think once they scored the quick goal after the penalty kill, 10 seconds after, I think we had to go for it a little bit, we were stretched out. That doesn’t work that well against them. So I think they did a good job of plugging it off, defending the lead.”
On how big of a factor Chicago’s transition game was:
“It wasn’t really a huge factor. I think both teams showed their speed. I think the first goal was a bad goal. That certainly didn’t impact it. The second goal was a turnover, not because of lack of speed.”
On how much the team misses Mike Richards:
“I think he was our leading point producer at the time of his injury. You can check. Obviously that impacts a lot.”
On how hard the Kings will come out in an elimination game:
“I think you can answer that yourself, couldn’t you?”
On whether Chicago played the way he expected them to in the absence of Keith:
“You know what they do, quite honest, the reason they’re a great defensive team, they’ve been all year, is not just with the goaltender, but the way they spread their minutes out. Basically what happens, you take that guy out of their lineup, it gives four other top guys a few more minutes is all it does. Doesn’t really hurt them at all, to be quite honest.”
On how much Los Angeles’ previous come-from-behind efforts “come into play”:
“Looking at it like last night or 40 years ago, we’re looking at the next game only. That’s what we do.” [Reporter: You have to have the right attitude going in?] I would assume we’ll have a good attitude.”
On ways to get production out of the power play:
“Actually, the Carter line has been very effective. Slava and Drew also. I think Kopy, there’s two minutes on a power play, I think they’ve really struggled.”
On Dustin Penner’s performance:
“I think the line was really effective. I think Jeff and Tyler and Dustin were all effective.”
On the team’s two shots on goal in the third period:
“They just talked about that. Somebody just asked, Do you think they did a good job of shutting us down? I haven’t looked at the sheet. I’m sure you have. Look at who has the shots is probably going to show that some of our top guys didn’t.”
On ways to counter a penalty kill that blocks a lot of shots:
“I think we did a good job, as I said, Jeff’s group and Slava and Drew, quite honest, finding their way around it. I’m sure if we won tonight 3-2, you could ask Joel the same question. It’s not as easy as it looks from up there.”
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