Aware of the challenge, Kings remain confident

As Los Angeles is now on the verge of playing their 21st playoff game of 2014, that’s left enough time for Darry Sutter to opine repeatedly that momentum doesn’t necessarily carry over between games in the postseason.

That’s a good thing for the Kings, who have played well but haven’t been able to put the Blackhawks away in their two attempts entering what will be a raucous night at the United Center with the home team entering tonight’s game with a brief winning streak.

“Yeah, you don’t want to play in too many Game 7s. I guess you do if you win them, but we’re here,” Jarret Stoll said. “Everything to this point is forgotten and gone. We feel comfortable we can come in here and win a game, play well in this building against this team and win. We need everybody to be good. We need everybody to be above average. We don’t need anybody to be great. We don’t need our goaltender to be unbelievable, or Kopitar to be unbelievable. Everybody in the room just has to be really good.”

The Kings also have a combined 70-7 record of Game 7 experience, which may as well qualify them as the best Game 7 team of all time. They’re 6-0 when facing elimination this postseason, and Justin Williams is a wizard who has maintained his two-points-a-game Game 7 pace. Mike Richards, Justin Williams and Marian Gaborik are 6-0 in Game 7s, with Jeff Carter clocking in with an impressive 4-0 record.

With the team enduring back-to-back losses to the defending champs and having traveled much of Saturday to take part in a game in which they’ve established themselves as the personification of elimination game success, that could create a mercurial collection of thoughts and emotions, right?

“No, we’re remaining the same way,” Drew Doughty said. “Our group is still confident. Obviously we lost the last two games, but we’re over it pretty quick. We’ve got to reset. We’ve got a game tonight and it’s going to be a tough one. It’s going to be their best game yet and we have to have our best effort too.”

Drew Doughty, on whether he remembers the day of Game 7 against Anaheim:
Not really. I more so remember Game 7 against San Jose than I remember Game 7 against the Ducks. The boys were just excited to play. We stayed loose in pre-game skate. We didn’t put any extra pressure on ourselves. We just went out and played our style of game and had fun with it. [Reporter: Do you get the same vibe so far?] Yeah, we’ve got the same vibe so far. Now we’re up against a better team, there is no doubt about that. This team has proven that they’re a winning team and winners in the past and it makes it that much tougher for us. We have to have our best effort. That’s it.

Player GP – G-A=Pts; W-L
Matt Greene 4 – 0-0=0; 3-1
Jake Muzzin 3 – 0-1=1; 3-0
Drew Doughty 3 – 1-2=3; 3-0
Mike Richards 6 – 1-4=5; 6-0
Anze Kopitar 3 – 2-3=5; 3-0
Marian Gaborik 6 – 2-3=5; 6-0
Kyle Clifford 3 – 0-3=3; 3-0
Justin Williams 6 – 6-6=12; 6-0
Trevor Lewis 3 – 0-1=1; 3-0
Dustin Brown 3 – 1-0=1; 3-0
Colin Fraser 1 – 0-0=0; 1-0
Slava Voynov 3 – 0-3=3; 3-0
Alec Martinez 2 – 0-1=1; 2-0
Jarret Stoll 3 – 0-0=0; 2-1
Willie Mitchell 3 – 0-0=0; 3-0
Robyn Regehr 6 – 0-0=0; 3-3
Jeff Schultz 4 – 0-0=0; 2-2
Tanner Pearson 2 – 2-1=3; 2-0
Jordan Nolan 0 – 0-0=0; 0-0
Tyler Toffoli 3 – 1-1=2; 3-0
Dwight King 3 – 0-1=1; 3-0
Jeff Carter 4 – 1-2=3; 4-0

Jonathan Quick 3 – 3-0 record / 180 MP / 1.33 GAA / .957 Sv%

KINGS GAME 7 HISTORY (6-4 RECORD)
April 18, 1968: Quarterfinals vs. MIN (MIN 9 at LA 4)
April 13, 1969: Quarterfinals vs. OAK (LA 5 at OAK 3)
April 25, 1976: Quarterfinals vs. BOS (LA 0 at BOS 3)
April 15, 1989: Smythe Division Semifinals vs. EDM (EDM 3 at LA 6)
May 29, 1993: Western Conference Final vs. TOR (LA 5 at TOR 4)
May 9, 2001: Western Conference Semifinals vs. COL (LA 1 at COL 5)
April 29, 2002: Western Conference Quarterfinals vs. COL (LA 0 at COL 4)
May 28, 2013: Western Conference Semifinals vs. SJ (SJ 1 at LA 2)
April 30, 2014: First Round vs. SJ (LA 5 at SJ 1)
May 16, 2014: Second Round vs. ANA (LA 6 at ANA 2)

Darryl Sutter: 6-3 in Game 7