Kings expected a tight series

Darryl Sutter endearingly referred to the NHL as a “three-two league” in his introductory press conference, an observation that has returned to his syntax several times since.

The Kings fell by a three-two score on Thursday in a game that continued the evolution back towards the tighter, lower-scoring style of hockey they’re accustomed to playing, and away from a first round series that saw Los Angeles and San Jose combine to average 6.9 goals per game.

It’s a continuation of the regular season series. Excluding shootout goals, neither the Kings nor the Ducks exceeded their seasonal goal average in any game this season up until the April 12 season finale, when Anaheim edged Los Angeles 4-3 in a shootout. The combined goals between the teams in the five meetings: four, three, three, three, six.

“It’s always an emotional game against them,” Anze Kopitar said. “It doesn’t matter if you play against them in the playoffs or not. They obviously have a good team over there and it seems like it’s a good matchup either way.”

The playoff series between Los Angeles and Anaheim hasn’t been decided by scores you’d associate with soccer, though the games have been lower scoring to a greater degree than those in the San Jose series.

“I think going into this series you knew it was going to be a highly competitive environment,” Alec Martinez said, furthering a point that Darryl Sutter made earlier today.

“Coming into the series, we were told that it wasn’t that close, so we kind of bunkered in there and said it was. So we think it is close.”

While most of the predictions in advance of the series favored the Kings, no one in the Kings’ room expected the series to reach a tipping point three games in.

“Nobody thought, on our part, that we were going to blow them out right away,” Kopitar said. “It’s obviously nice to win on the road, but now we have to take care of business at home.”

“They had 116 points this year. They scored over 260 goals,” Martinez said. “We knew that it was going to be a battle and it has been. We watched some video this morning, learned from a few things we maybe weren’t doing right yesterday and then reinforce some things that we were. We’ll focus on that and come back and hopefully get a win tomorrow.”

Alec Martinez, on cutting down on turnovers in the neutral zone:
I think it’s just a little bit of attention to detail. We’ve got to a better job on the neutral zone forecheck and when we’re making plays in the neutral zone. Getting pucks past the red and into the zone and getting in on the forecheck.

Martinez, on Marian Gaborik fitting in with the team:
He’s been awesome from day one ever since he got here. He’s a great guy both on and off the ice. You see that he’s developed some chemistry there with Kopi pretty quickly. He’s a heck of a hockey player. We’ve seen that he can score big goals. He’s got a lot of skill. He’s got a lot speed. He’s been awesome for us.

Martinez, on what they knew of Marian Gaborik before he joined the team:
I think everyone knew who Marian Gaborik was. He’s been around. I think he was in the league when he was 18. He’s been a really big offensive guy. He’s put up a lot of big numbers. I think we were pretty familiar with him and we knew what kind of player we were getting.

Martinez, on how Marian Gaborik’s offense can provide some relief to the defense:
I don’t think that it changes our focus on the game, regardless of the firepower that we have or counting on guys to score goals. Our defensive game isn’t going to change. We still go into every game with that focus and want to play strong defensively. It’s no secret that that’s a big part of our identity here.

Martinez, on Marian Gaborik’s personality:
Like I said, he’s a heck of a hockey player and he’s fit in with us both on and off the ice from day one. He’s a great guy. He’s definitely been a great addition to our club.

Martinez, on the importance of getting the first goal:
I think good starts are really important. That’s something that we’ve preached all year. Especially in the playoffs you want to get off to a good start, player your game early, establish some momentum in how you’re going to play the rest of the night and obviously that first goal is huge.

Martinez, on how getting the first goal plays into their game plan:
I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case. I think just establishing a good start, whether you score or not. It’s all part of the process. You want to build off each shift and just get your game in order. Sometimes you don’t score and you can still have a little momentum. Sometimes you do, that’s obviously a nice thing to have.

Martinez, on having a 2-1 series lead ahead of a home game:
You just take it one game at a time. I don’t think you really look at the score series wise. Each day, each game our focus is the same. I think that’s one thing that we’ve learned, is that you can’t get too high, too low. You have to stay even keeled. You have to reset after every game and just take it one at a time.

Martinez, on Jeff Schultz:
He’s been awesome. He’s a well-established NHL guy. He’s played over, I think, 300 NHL games. He’s a real big body. He’s physical. He’s got that long reach. He can break up plays with his stick. He’s a really, really steady defensive presence there, especially in our own zone. I can’t say enough about his play. He’s been awesome for us.

Martinez, on the progression of his own game this season:
I just think I’m a byproduct of the team playing well. It’s not me, it’s just the whole team playing a team game.

Anze Kopitar, on his chemistry with Marian Gaborik:
We got put together right away and you obviously try to develop that as quickly as you can. It seems like it’s been clicking for us.

Kopitar, on how Marian Gaborik compliments his game:
I think he’s a constant threat with his shooting ability and scoring ability. Every time he comes into the offensive zone, everybody is paying attention to him. Maybe that gives me a few more inches to work with. At the end of the game, giving the puck to him somewhere in the slot is always a good option.

Kopitar, on his first thoughts when the Kings traded for Marian Gaborik:
It was something that we were missing for a long time here. It’s a left winger, a left shot and it was obviously exciting.

Kopitar, on how momentum changes from one game to the next in a series:
Yeah, that’s why you can’t get too high or too low in the playoff series. We’ve been on the other side of it in the first series too. You just have to go about your own business, focus one game at a time and that’s pretty much it.

Kopitar, on being disappointed in playing a good game in Game 3 and not winning:
No, I think there is still room for improvement. Saturday is obviously going to be a big game and we’re going to be ready for it.

Kopitar, on adjustments they need to make for Game 4:
Just clean up the neutral zone. Playing sharper with and without the puck.

Kopitar, on having less ice time over the past two games:
I don’t know. I feel good regardless. It doesn’t make a difference. We’ve been rolling four lines pretty good and we’ll see what Darryl does next game.

Kopitar, on how getting the first goal plays into their game plan:
I think every time you want to score the first goal and then build off that. Last night, they got and we need to sharpen up on the PK of course and that was a big part last night.

Kopitar, on how to improve the neutral zone play:
It’s just managing the puck. When you give them the opportunity off of our mistakes, it’s never a good thing. We did that in the first series and we’ve done it a couple times now too where it burnt us. So we want to clean that up.

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