May 25 media availability: Stoll, Richards

Jarret Stoll, on whether the Kings have gained momentum:
Every game is its own little deal. You have to try to come out and play well and win. You see little things going on in the series now that hopefully we can keep pushing and pulling the right way. We want to frustrate them. We want to be in their face smart. Still taking too many penalties for our liking. Try to get those down. It’s no secret when you got a lead on a team in a series, you want to keep pushing. We all know what can happen with momentum, especially in this playoffs.

Stoll, on whether the style of play changes as the series evolves:
No, no, I don’t think so. We looked at film already this morning on some things we got to do better, especially in the first period, the way they came at us. No, you got to play whatever style of game is your game. They have their style. They’re going to for sure try to come out and play that way in Game 4. We have to limit our mistakes and manage the puck, do all those things, be disciplined, be aggressive, be on our toes, which I thought we were more so as the second and third periods went on. Therefore we got some goals and the lead and got the win.

Stoll, on the “optimum” number of penalties to take in a game:
You have to be on that edge. Probably two or three is the number. The type of penalties, too, you got to look at that. Too many men. High sticks. Stuff like that, we can’t be taking. We know that. Yeah, maybe it’s not many. But it’s the types of penalties, maybe the time of the game. Yeah, the way we want to play, we want to play physical, heavy and hard, on the edge. Just walk that line, I guess.

Stoll, on the team’s penalty killing:
We’re getting back to a little bit of being confident with each other, doing those little things, what it takes to kill one off at important times. Even go through a penalty kill where we’re not giving up any shots, which is key, up-ice pressure, reading off our defensemen, our defensemen reading off our forwards, getting some shot blocks and big saves. You need saves. It all works together to kill a penalty. It’s hard work. It’s using your head out there. Yeah, we had some big kills the past couple of games. We got to continue to do that. It can win you a series. It can lose you a series. I think we’ve picked it up and we’ve been better. We’re going to need that.

Stoll, on the luxury of spreading out ice time amongst the forwards:
It’s very important, I think. For a while now we just can roll four lines. I think all four lines can play against any line really. I know Darryl probably feels that way as well. There’s been a lot of games where our four lines have been around 15, 17 minutes. Your pace of play has to be high. It should be. That’s how we want to play. We don’t want to have dips in our play. We want to keep our play high, the speed of the game. Once that third period comes, when it’s tough hockey in the third period, we’ve still got some gas, some jump to play the way we want to play.

Stoll, on whether Darryl Sutter’s avoidance of match-ups helps the players not have “to shift”:
Yeah, that could be difficult. Darryl, since he’s been here, he’s not that kind of a tight, tight matchup guy. He trusts his players to play against anybody. He demands it. I think as a player you want that. You want to have that on your shoulders, to know you can play against anybody and do the job. We know we can.

Stoll, on how the team adjusts to facing a struggling power play:
You don’t want to think about them too much. You want to do whatever is within your penalty killing unit to do, be aggressive – maybe even more aggressive in that situation, if their confidence isn’t that high in the power play. Be smart, too, because they have dangerous players with a lot of skill. You don’t want to be overaggressive because it opens other things up. Probably a little bit of both. We have to be smart, keep our confidence high on the kill, other parts of the game as well.

Stoll, on whether the Kings will be “in good shape” if they play the same way:
You can always be a little better with managing the puck, penalties. I think we need a better start in Game 4 than we had in Game 3. Just that aggressive style, in their face, trying to frustrate them, try to let them know it will be a tough game. If we start with the puck, they’re going to have to come through us 200 feet to beat us. Have that attitude and mindset. Yeah, we feel good about our game. We know we can do better in Game 4. We know we can bring it. In front of our home crowd, we’ve got to take advantage of this opportunity.

Mike Richards, on the team’s confidence heading into Game 4:
We’re confident. I mean, they are, too. You don’t make it to this point without having confidence. We played well. In the last couple games I thought our start wasn’t very good. We have to address that and be better tomorrow. But that’s what playoffs are about, making adjustments. Whatever it is, confidence or whatever, we’re playing some good hockey. We just have to keep trying to get better and keep moving forward.

Richards, on whether the offense has benefited from having four lines:
It’s not easy, that’s for sure. You got to work for ’em. I think once we got Gabby, it creates that confidence or gives you that confidence that you have that natural goal-scorer. We spread out the scoring in different lines. When you’re getting contributions from all four lines, it’s tough to match up against, especially when you’re the other team trying to look on paper who you want to check and what D pairings you want to play against. In our case, we just roll four lines. We’re not overly a matchup team. It allows everybody to get into the game early. It creates that confidence that we have. Once we got Gabby, I think that’s when we kind of had a four-line attack.

Richards, on whether there’s anything Chicago “can do” when Los Angeles is playing well:
They’ve done a lot. They carried the play yesterday in the first period. We had four shots in the second. They’re obviously having some success. We have to I think be more consistent with our game throughout the game, not just have bursts of one period here, a couple shifts there. We have to try to play it more consistently throughout the game. It starts with that first shift. But they’re a great hockey team. They’ve proven it over the years, especially this year. They’ve got some good players. They’ve done a lot of good things. We just seem to be getting the bounces right now. [Reporter: You don’t you have them figured out in some way?]: I don’t think so.

Richards, on whether Chicago appears less resilient than in previous years:
They just have a lot of good players on that team that step up in big situations. It seems like whenever they’re behind the eight ball, they always have their big players step up, whether it’s Johnny, Kane, Duncan. They have a lot of stars that can do that. We’ve been fortunate of having some bounces and getting some luck. That’s what you need at this point in the season.

Richards, on whether Los Angeles was “fighting with one hand behind [its] back” in last year’s series due to injuries:
No. Everyone has injuries in playoffs. It’s just a matter of playing the cards that you’re dealt. You can’t use it as an excuse. Last year is last year. This year we’re focusing on things that we can control. We’ve had some injuries. They’ve had some injuries. We’re just playing hockey at this point.

Richards, on having fallen behind in all three games:
I think we’re a team that thrives off of having the lead. It’s taken us a while to get going. We’ve given them some opportunities that we shot ourselves in the foot with for them to score goals. But I think if you follow this team for a while, we’re a team that plays well in the third with the lead. We’ve been lucky to have that the last couple games. I like the way the team is finishing, but I think we have to focus more on the start and carry that through.

Richards, on whether he notices any difference in Jeff Carter:
I don’t know if he needs that little extra something. I think he’s always a confident player when he’s on the ice. I don’t think he struggles with that. I think being in the center may help him a little bit just with getting more speed. He’s always stepped up ever since I’ve known him in playoffs. He’s always been the guy in big games and situations, he always steps up, like I said before. In key points of the game, if we need momentum swings, it seems like it’s that line that is giving it to us right now.

Richards, on the physicality of Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli:
When you put yourself in good positions, it allows you to have the puck on your stick, you don’t have to waste energy chasing the puck if you put yourself in good positions. Tanner has that speed and gets on defensemen quickly and gets to the puck. Same with Jeff really. He’s fast. Tyler is just a smart hockey player. He puts himself in good situations. I played with him a little bit over the last couple years. He just seems to find that open ice, that knack for where he needs to be. That’s something you can’t teach; that’s just hockey sense you get over the years. Jeff and Tanner are big guys, and Tyler. They’re big guys that have that physical ability to have that size advantage. They’re tenacious, young legs, whatever it is. But they seem to have a lot of energy. As a team right now, we’re feeding off of that.