Team aware of standings in advance of tonight’s game

The importance of tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks was not lost on Drew Doughty, who reinforced the need “to make up some ground” after today’s morning skate.

“We kind of had a big meeting yesterday and we realized how many points, how many wins we need to get in order to secure a playoff spot and in order to hopefully secure a really high playoff spot, too. It’s going to be tough to do, but we’re prepared to do it.”

It was a notion reinforced when Alec Martinez was asked if he pays much attention to the standings.

“Have you ever been in our locker room?…There are standings everywhere,” he said.

No, we haven’t been in the restricted area in the team’s room recently, and no, the situation isn’t dire. Los Angeles is three points out of the final playoff spot and with a game in hand on Calgary, which occupies a wild card spot. Vancouver, tied with Calgary with 55 points, occupies the division’s number three spot and has two games in hand on the Flames and one in hand on the Kings.

“Just overall, I expected our team to be in a higher playoff spot,” Doughty said. “Teams are gunning for us now. We’re not a team that’s just going to fly under the radar and win games that way. We show up every night for 60 minutes and that’s how we’re going to win games, because other teams are gunning for us…and they’re determined to beat us no matter where they play us.”

On whether facing Chicago is a good jumping off point to start the second half:
Yeah, I think it’s a really important game for us. If we can get a win, it’d be a huge starting point to this rest of the season. We know we need to win a lot of games to be in a playoff spot and to gain some ground on other teams. It’s a big game.

On whether he feels like he received a break after playing in the All-Star Game:
Not really, no. You’re flying all over the place, playing in a game and you’re doing media all day and stuff like that. So it definitely wasn’t a break. If the team hadn’t had given me Monday off, I would have had no break at all really.

On whether he enjoys the rivalry with Chicago:
Oh yeah, it’s a lot of fun playing Chicago. It’s one of my favorite teams to play against. They’re such a good team. They bring so many challenges. That’s what I love about hockey, when it’s challenging and you’ve got a big job to do and tonight I have a big job personally and our team does, as well.

On whether he had a chance to get to know Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane better at the All-Star Game:
No, I already know Duncs already from the Olympics twice. I know Kaner because he used to play in London, too. I know a lot of guys from previous things, but I got to meet some other new guys too who I had never met. All hockey players are good guys, so it was a lot of fun.

On his experience being in the same room with Patrick Kane:
I don’t know. Like I said, I’ve known him since juniors. So it’s been like whatever, eight or nine years. We just talked about normal stuff, talked about London, talked about hockey and that was it.

On his experience with Ryan Getzlaf at the All-Star Game:
Me and Getzy get along pretty well off the ice. I hung out with him quite a bit at the Olympics, both times. He’s a funny guy. We get along real well. [Reporter: So he started it?] Yeah, he was the first one to throw a shot at me. So then we just kind of went back and forth. [Reporter: And what did he say?] I don’t even remember now. [Reporter: You got him on camera, that’s the most important thing.] Yeah, you guys can look that up. I don’t even remember what he said. … I don’t remember, I’m sorry.