On the fine line between attacking a net and making sure goalies aren’t run:
I think it’s really important. I think that always when your goalie gets hit, you’re defending your goalie, and as an attacking player you’re always telling your players to go to the net. You know what? It’s such a fine line. If you look at the Montreal play, they’re both right, and if you look at our play last night, they’re both right. One guy’s trying to score, which is what we’ve try to do ever since we’ve played the game, and the goalie’s trying to stop the puck. I’m just glad we’re not talking about it in the sense where not that it was a goal or not a goal, I’m glad we’re not talking about it today because our goalie was hurt, and not because their Jonathan was trying to run into our Jonathan. Just the point that our goalie wasn’t hurt.
On the biggest growth in Marian Gaborik’s game that allowed him to fit in:
Good players fit in anywhere. It’s not like we have a special way we play. I mean, the teams that are still playing all play 200-foot games. Marian’s fit in because he plays a 200-foot game.
On whether he’s fine with the Kopitar/Toews matchup:
Well, typically Kopi plays with Gabby, and typically plays with Toews, so don’t call ‘em ‘lines.’ I mean, did you know that Bickell was on that line, or did you know Brown was on the Kopitar line? So don’t call ‘em lines. You’ve got to go another step farther, and if you’re just saying Toews versus Kopitar, well then don’t worry about who’s playing with them.
On whether the Kings didn’t have “deep emotion” after two emotional series:
Jeez, I thought we played a hell of a game. If we’d have bore down on our opportunities, we’re standing here today up one-nothing. [Reporter: The scrums- and the extra-] Actually, the one scrum, if you watched it live, the one scrum there was, if we were bitching and moaning about calls today, the one scrum there wasn’t that we were called on, it was too bad they couldn’t review it.
On what has allowed Los Angeles and Chicago to meet again in the salary cap era:
I think you have to adjust to the way the way the game is changing and playing, and I think you have to adjust to different lineups as you go forward. Chicago – they win it last year, and then if you look at the last time they won it, the massive overhaul on their team, probably other than their young stars, and you still have to be able to do that. You have to be able to adjust to the game, adjust to the rules, adjust to the style. I think that’s a big reason why we’re both in the conference finals again. Whether we can adjust enough to beat the Stanley Cup champions, I don’t know.
On whether he felt Brandon Bollig “took a dive”:
No.
On whether the Kings lost a game in which their mistakes ended up as goals against:
There are turnovers during a game. I mean, there’s just a little bit of this thing going on in the playoffs about turning the puck over. Well, there are turnovers. There are mistakes. It’s not a perfect a game. You just can’t hit the button and say, ‘Perfect.’ There are little turnovers. That’s going to happen, and you’re going to rely on not using those little turnovers or mistakes as reasons why you lost. The teams are pretty close, I think.
On innate qualities in 200-foot skilled players like Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Toews:
Well, if you’re just talking about those two kids, they’ve both played on big stages. Obvioulsy, Canada’s probably more familiar with Toews because of all the stuff he’s represented with his country. But if you look at – I’m going to say the process that those guys go through their whole lives – they are dominant players at their age group their whole way up, whether they’re 12, 14, 16, all the way up, they are dominant players, which means that they ‘re always ready for this stage when they get there. There’s a lot of direction, and obviously because of the team thing, playing together, and to some extent coaching, but I think at the end of the day those guys are special players because there’s something special there.
On the challenge to get Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik scoring against Chicago:
I can only base it on last night’s game, and we had a lot of good opportunities. I think you have to give Crawford a lot of credit last night.
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