October 30 postgame quotes: Anze Kopitar

On whether the Kings had their “best win of the year”:
It certainly feels so. It’s probably the closest you can get to playoff hockey this time of year. I thought it was a lot of intensity, lots of hitting. It’s usual when we play these guys that whoever wins the special teams usually comes on top. We did that tonight and got the two points. [Reporter: And to come from behind, too, that makes it a little extra special, right?] Yeah. It just shows the character, that there’s no quitting in this one. I know it’s just the first period, but we could easily pack it in after 13 seconds and maybe just decide not to show up. But we came back a couple of minutes later and definitely made it a good hockey game.

On limiting San Jose to three shots in the third period:
To be honest I wasn’t counting, but it seems like we had some good shifts in their zone, and we were able to cycle the puck a little bit and get the opportunities. That’s maybe just what happens when you’re protecting the lead, and maybe you pull back naturally. I don’t know if that was the case, but we just wanted to give ourselves the opportunity, and we certainly did that.

On the team’s forechecking:
Like I said before, a team like that – where they have big bodies around all over the ice – you’ve got to play a physical game, and holding onto the pucks in the offensive zone is probably the biggest key in trying to wear them down. The firepower that they have, it’s safest to play in their zone, I thought we did a fairly good job tonight, and there’s obviously room for improvement, but we’ll take it.

On whether he heard people encouraging him to shoot on the final power play:
Yeah, I’ve been hearing that a lot, so it’s nothing new. First of all, maybe it seems a little bit easier from up top to see what it is. Just a touch. Once I’m on the ice, I’m making the play that I think at that particular moment is the best play for us. If that’s a pass, it’s a pass. If it’s a shot, it’s a shot. I can hear it a little bit, yeah, with 18,000 screaming to shoot it. But it comes down to my brain, my hands, my stick in where the puck’s going to go. [Reporter: By the way, did you pull a nice time to shoot it, you think?] I think it was a fairly good time, yeah.

On whether Wednesday’s game was more representative of “a late season game”:
How many rivals do we have now? Phoenix, Ducks, everybody’s rival now. When St. Louis comes into town, that’s a big rivalry now, too. I mean, it’s game number 14 in the season, and you definitely want to get the two points, no matter who you’re playing. I guess it adds a little bit of spice because we beat them in the playoffs last year, but they beat us the previous time, so maybe. For us, it’s a matter on focusing on stuff that we’re doing, and we have to accomplish and follow the game plan, and I think we did a pretty good job tonight. [Reporter: The main thing is getting two points, right?] Yeah. I’m sure if we here on out get the two points, even if we give one away, I think our total score is going to be pretty good. That’s the way we’re going to look at it. Obviously you don’t want to give out the one point, but as long as we get the two points, I think at the end of the day that’s what we want.

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