December 23 morning skate quotes: Regehr, Doughty

Robyn Regehr, on the team being “on a roll”:
I think the important thing to do – when you’re on a roll, winning games – sometimes they’re not always going to be the greatest games, but is to realize there’s areas we need to improve on and we need to fix those quickly. And if you do that as individuals and as a team, you continue on that roll. The teams that don’t they end up going through a winning streak and then a prolonged losing streak, then a winning streak. We don’t want that to happen. We want to work on consistency and we’ve had that ability here so far this year. To continue on that roll and make adjustments as we go and we need to continue that.

Regehr, on how he feels having withstood various “dings”:
I think probably the same as everyone else is feeling. There’s lots of bumps and bruises and things like that. But it’s very important how you manage your body and you come to the rink as early as you need to, to warm things up or to treat things that need to be treated and do it that way, because you have to try to hold things together. So, I think that’s probably the most important thing and to really not get lazy in the preparation. Part of the preparation, not just the mental stuff, but also physical because it’s a big part of the game and if you feel good physically usually that allows you to play a better game.

Regehr, on any ill effects from off-season surgery:
Well, I had a different situation that happened. I kind of got dinged up a little bit there with a hyperextended elbow. So just continuing to try to take care of it as much as I can, but it’s difficult when you’re playing games all the time and you’re practicing. It just doesn’t have a chance to heal up as quickly as I would want, or if you’re not playing, but it’s still manageable. That’s the big thing, making sure you’re taking care of it properly.

Drew Doughty, on whether the team’s current run is the best stretch of regular season hockey he has been a part of as a King:
Yeah, for regular season, I think for sure. In the past our team hasn’t been the best regular season team. We kind of have a lot of ups and downs. We’ll win a stretch of games and we’ll lose a stretch of games. One thing, at the very start of the season, we were kind of struggling a little bit and the talk was kind of ‘why can’t we ever put a good regular season together?’ And I think all the guys on the time kind of took it upon ourselves to become a better regular season team. We want to finish in first place in the Western Conference, and that’s the bottom line. We’re going to do everything we can to do that.

Doughty, on what has led to the Kings’ defensive success:
I think every single guy on the team, obviously our goaltending’s been fantastic. It always has been the last couple of years, and not only do we have a good defensive core, our forwards play hard defensively too. Our top forward is obviously Anze Kopitar, and most teams’ top forward isn’t going to be as good as he is defensively. People don’t realize what he does for our team overall. Not only does he create scoring chances and always lead our team in points, he’s out there on the five-on-three PK against, he’s out there on the five-on-four PK against. He’s phenomenal at playing defense, really. And when your leader, your top forward, is doing that it shows the other forwards that they better be playing that exact same way too.