November 13 practice quotes: Players

Ben Scrivens, Mike Richards, Willie Mitchell, Linden Vey and Toffoli spoke to LA Kings Insider following the team’s practice at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo Wednesday afternoon.

Ben Scrivens, on Tuesday’s game:
Yeah, it’s tough. Obviously, would have liked to have the game go with a different result in the end. Obviously a tough situation to go into, but that’s the nature of the beast. You’ve got to accept that that’s the role and that sometimes stuff like that is going to happen and make the most of it. As of right now it’s a learning experience and it’s something that you can try and take the most you can from it and move on going forward.

Scrivens, on how he’ll prepare for games with an added role:
The ideal situation is that you have been practicing hard and you’ve been maintaining your game and trying to focus on good habits in practice so that if something unfortunate like this happens it’s not a panic button and all of the sudden you have to get it back in 24 hours. It’s been great working with Billy in practice. I think things have been going well right from training camp on, every day. You never have just a straight progression of improvement – there are obviously dips and valleys – but by and large the trend is going up, so that is the important thing. Again, it is a habit thing at this point. I’ve got a lot of the skill changes under the belt now, and now it’s situational stuff and habits and that sort of stuff we have been working on. Hopefully that hard work is going to pay off for myself and the team going forward here.

Scrivens, on whether he has ever entered a game in overtime:
No, I have never personally done that but I am sure it has happened to someone at some point. I mean, it’s one of those things in your role as a support guy, you’ve got to be ready. After the first intermission you are not warm anyway – it has been so long since warmups, and chances are the other guy took the lion’s share of those shots too. Essentially, it’s a mindset going in. Generally, you’ve got to stop the bleeding, that’s the most common reason for a goaltending switch. You’ve got to usually ride into the fire and it’s just out of the box and go. Whether that is one minute into the first or one minute left in overtime, the mindset doesn’t really change too much. You are just going in there and it’s an uphill battle so it’s going to be hard work that gets you through it.

Scrivens, on how he remains focused when entering a game 63 minutes in:
I think maybe you are overthinking it a little bit. I mean we have all been playing hockey for a long time. It’s not like you are going out into foreign territory, somewhere you have never been before. It’s a game, we have been playing it for a long time. Again, you just go out there and try and play the game…It would be like, obviously an easier thing to do, but like, you haven’t rode a bike for five years. You hop on a bike, are you ‘huh, what, my mind has been wandering, I haven’t done this…?’ No, you just get on the bike and ride and do your best and try hard and try not to fall off.

Mike Richards, on Ben Scrivens:
He has played well. He shows up in practice, he plays well in the games. Like I said, I think everyone is more than confident of him stepping in there.

Richards, on how the team responded to Jonathan Quick’s injury:
Obviously concern for him, he looked like he was in discomfort. But we just have to continue on and when you get the chance you’ll get to see Quickie.

Richards, on playing the Islanders:
I have played them a lot and they have come a long way I think since I have been there. With Johnny Tavares playing really well and now that Vanek is there, they got some good players looking at their lineup this morning. They have a good team and we are going to have to play well to have success.

Willie Mitchell, on Ben Scrivens assuming a larger role:
It happens in hockey all the time, so we are all kind of prepared for it. He is prepared for it. Players get injured. It’s a hard, physical, fast game and that stuff happens. For Scrivs obviously I am sure he is excited. Not excited that, you don’t want your teammate to get hurt, especially arguably your best player. But it’s an opportunity for him to showcase what he can do and I am sure he will look to seize that. As players, we look to rally around a guy like that who practices hard and waits to get his turn and doesn’t get a lot of game situations because we got a world class goalie starting. So we will look to rally around him and hopefully make it easier on him so he can kind of feel his game as he gets in and get right into it.

Linden Vey, on how much he has communicated with Tanner Pearson:
I think, obviously with the time change, three hour time change, it’s that much harder. But we keep in contact just because you want to know how each other is doing. And congrats – obviously he sent a few texts when I played my first game. When he is playing I always make sure to ask him how the game went and stuff like that. It’s been good and obviously if he is coming up I am excited to have him up here.

Vey, on his play in the offensive zone against Buffalo:
You want to play in their zone as much as you can. Especially for me coming up, I don’t want to spend too much time in my own zone. If you want to stay up at the NHL you have to eliminate time in your defensive zone and make sure to play rock solid all over the ice. And for the most part we have been playing in the other team’s end.

Tyler Toffoli, on Tanner Pearson being set to join the Kings:
It will be good and exciting. We will have to see what happens and what the lines are when he gets here.

Toffoli, on the possibility of the Toffoli-Vey-Pearson line reuniting in the NHL:
We [played together] in an exhibition game this year. I think it would be fun, but we will have to wait and see what Darryl wants to do, really.

Toffoli, on his performance thus far:
I just try to get the puck to the net, take every shot that I can and play my game. Keep things simple and just try and be good along the walls in both ends, create plays and try and make a difference every time I am on the ice.

Toffoli, on playing on a line with Mike Richards and Dwight King:
They all the right plays and it makes things easy. I think you just have to work and get open and both guys will find you. So that is what I have been trying to do so far.

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