March 3 morning skate quotes: Doughty, Clifford, Williams

Drew Doughty, on whether Los Angeles is a team that “fits” playing Montreal because of the size advantage:
I don’t know if we’re a team that ‘fits’ it. If there is a series or something like that where we play them, I don’t know who would come out the winner. I think last game obviously we had the upper edge, but it’s a whole new day, a whole new team, a whole new game.

Doughty, on why he excels in key situations:
I don’t know what the reason is. I just have fun in those situations. At those kinds of tournaments you can go out play and do your thing or whatever. You’re not over coached or anything like that. You just go out and play and have fun with it. And that’s what I did. I do the same things here in LA every night. I just don’t get maybe as many points.

Doughty, on the amount of recognition he receives playing in Los Angeles:
I think definitely if I’m playing in Toronto or Montreal I’m getting a little more, but that doesn’t bother me. Obviously, I’d like to get a little more recognition and win a Norris Trophy one day, but all I can control is what I can do here in LA and my own personal game and helping this team win games and that’s what we’ve been doing.

Doughty, on whether he established himself as the one of the best defensemen in the Olympics:
I don’t know if I established myself as that. I think I made progress towards that, I guess you could say. What I did at the Olympics, I feel like I’ve been doing in LA for years. Whether or not I get that recognition –it’s out of my control. So I’m just here to play my game. That’s all that matters.

Doughty, on his relationship with P.K. Subban during the Olympics:
I had a lot of fun P.K. He’s one of my probably the guys I hung out with the most. I’ve known him for a long time, since we were kids. He’s a great guy.

Kyle Clifford, on the previous game against Montreal:
I thought we were pretty good last time against them. Obviously that was a couple months ago, so we’ve got to be ready for them tonight. But the same mentality, take pucks to the net, go to the net and just be hard on them.

Clifford, on the defensive pairing of P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov:
They’re both good D. Obviously we don’t get to see them too much. Subban – he moved pretty well and they’re a pretty dynamic duo. You just have to be hard on them and make them turn back.

Clifford, on using the size advantage against Montreal:
I think night in and night out, we definitely want to come in and establish a hard hitting tempo game with a good identity. That’s definitely our mentality going in tonight as well.

Justin Williams, on what the winning streak:
I think you can obviously say that the Olympic break was good for us. If you came out of the break playing like crap you could say otherwise. I think just getting away for a little while was good for everybody and it seems like everyone used the time wisely. It’s paying dividend s for us right now and we’ve played well.

Williams, on what has changed since the Olympic break:
I don’t know, it could be a type of attitude as well. Whereas you don’t think you can score. Where you’re having a tough time, where things aren’t going your way. But when you get away from it a little bit, you forget about all of that and just play. Obviously a little bit more energy too knowing that we’re a little bit refreshed. I think this time of year is when we play our best hockey. The last 20 games is playoff time. It’s time to show up.

Williams, on where the team can continue to improve:
You can improve every aspect of the game. Obviously our special teams has been, I’d say below average. Our penalty kill needs to step up. Our power play – although we’ve scored a couple game-winners – hasn’t been up to snuff. I would say those two things.

Williams, on the previous game against Montreal:
I think when you look at a lot of the goals that we scored in that game, a lot of them were in front of the net uncontested. We certainly don’t expect that. We expect a lot of battles in front of the net, batting them in that way. As long as we go to the net – whether or not they’re there or not – we should be able to capitalize.

Williams, on if there a “sense of urgency”:
Some teams have to start playing playoff hockey a lot earlier than others and given the way we went into the break, we’re one of those teams. Yes, desperation is a big factor in a lot of games.

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