May 29 media availability: Gaborik, Kopitar

Marian Gaborik, on trying to close out the series.
Yeah, I mean, you want to close it out. Of course, we wanted to do that last night. It didn’t work out. Coming back to our building, you know, everybody is of course excited for the game. Just got to play our game. We’re talking about we have to fix quite a few stuff from last night and just go from there.

Gaborik, on whether it was hard to adjust their game plan after scoring in the second period:
I mean, with that type of team, we don’t want to do that because usually they would come on top of us. They’re such a great talent, offensive power. Even so we scored some goals that way, that’s not our game to play.

Gaborik, on whether there is pressure to close out the series:
Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say there’s a whole lot of pressure. Everybody feels some sort of a pressure coming into any game to perform. Of course, tomorrow is the biggest game of the season for us. We’re going to make sure and we will approach it that way. Everybody will be ready to play. You know, hopefully we can have a good start like we did Game 4.

Gaborik, on maintaining their energy deep in a playoff run:
I think we’re going to have a lot of energy. It’s just to approach that game, you know, if we win we can be in the Stanley Cup Final. That itself should give you plenty of energy. Today is a day to recover and to look at some of the things and fix some of the things we didn’t do well last night and just go from there.

Gaborik, on the excitement of Game 5:
Yeah, like I said, it was unbelievable game for fans to watch, especially overtime when there was maybe, I don’t know, under 10 minutes of no stoppage. The pace was very good. For you guys, for all the fans, it must have been a very good experience.

Anze Kopitar, on Game 5.
Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good game. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but there’s some positives. There’s also some negatives that we have to correct from that game, get ready for tomorrow.

Kopitar, on Chicago shuffling their defensive pairs in Game 5:
I don’t think it really matters how they shuffle their D. Again, there’s some stuff we have to correct about our game. We’ve done that earlier in the series. Now we’re going to have to do it again.

Kopitar, on whether they will treat tomorrow’s game like it is a Game7:
Yeah, of course. Nobody wants to go back there. We wanted to finish it off last night. It didn’t happen. It’s disappointing. We’re going to have to do it tomorrow.

Kopitar, on whether he approaches faceoffs differently than other centermen:
That’s really hard to say because you’re doing the same thing over and over again. It’s really just I think a comfort level. It also depends who you’re going up against. You know, there’s a bunch of stuff that goes into that, what the outcome is.

Kopitar, on whether they feel like they will win the Stanley Cup if they beat Chicago:
I think all four teams are in great position to win the Stanley Cup. We’re not looking ahead. We’re not looking at our teams. We just got to figure out our own game. Not figure it out, we just got to play our game because we know it’s successful.

Kopitar, on what he has done to improve his performance in faceoffs:
It’s hard to say. I mean, I think a lot of it is just getting to know the guys, the other guys, the other players, what their strengths are, how can you expose them. You just try to go with that. I think I’ve gotten a little bit stronger since I first got here, too, so that obviously helps. But, you know, it’s just different things that, you know, are, I guess, a good result and a bad result. It’s a lot of stuff that goes in there.

Kopitar, on the eight minutes of uninterrupted play in the first overtime of Game 5:
It was good. It was intense. The game was going up and down. There were some chances. We had a chance to win. They had a chance to win. I’m sure it’s fun for the fans. But, you know, from a structure standpoint of view, we wanted to tie it up.

Kopitar, on whether their past experience in long playoff runs is helping them:
For me personally I think you can’t get too high or too low. That’s what I learned in the last couple years. If you do that, it’s obviously an emotional rollercoaster. You definitely don’t want to think about all the stuff that could happen, would happen, will happen. Just stay even keel, really just try to be in the moment and be focused that way.