December 16 postgame quotes: Toffoli, Budaj, Martinez

Tyler Toffoli, on his overtime game-winning goal:
Marty made a good play to give it back to me and I was looking over to Pears but the D-man slid down and I just kind of stuffed it in.

Toffoli, on the Kings’ 18-3 record in overtime since the implementation of 3-on-3:
I think we have some skilled players who check the right way. Even when it’s 3-on-3 we come back and I think we really bare down on our chances and we score some goals.

Toffoli, on countering a team with a highly-skilled overtime lineup:
Yeah I think, I mean obviously we got a fortunate bounce with Kessel breaking his stick and I think when that happens, Marty made a good play around the net and we had a 3-on-1 the whole way down the ice. Obviously you need a little luck on our side and we got that tonight.

Toffoli, on Peter Budaj’s performance:
Oh he was great. I think he made what, 38, 39 saves? I think we took 6 or 7 penalties so early on in that game he made some huge saves and kept us in the game and he got the shutout.

Toffoli, on keeping an offensively-heavy team like the Penguins off the scoreboard:
I think, you know after our game in Buffalo we really wanted to tighten things up and not only do a good job 5-on-5 but penalty kill and everything else. Tonight was an example of that and Buds stood on his head and we got the win.

Peter Budaj, on winning the second game of a back-to-back:
You know, felt good out there tonight, so it was a big win for us.

Budaj, on getting a rest last night in Detroit:
You obviously want to play every game but sometimes you get tired, too. But I think I’m ready to play every game, I try to take care of myself when we don’t have a game. I try to take care of myself and I do stuff right and take good sleep and stuff like that, so you know, honestly I want to play every game, I’m sure that Zats wants to play every game if you ask him so everybody wants to play every game, that’s why you’re a goalie. So I was glad I got a chance to play tonight. It’s a great challenge for our team especially coming into a hot building and I think they were pretty hot the last I think 10 games, they were pretty good last 7 games they were really really good so it was a big challenge for us. It wasn’t pretty but it’s a big 2 points for us.

Budaj, on the mindset going into overtime after 3 scoreless periods:
You know, it’s 3-on-3. 3-on-3 is very trick, I think you’ve got to hold on to the puck. You can’t throw blind passes because it’s an automatic 3-on-2 or 2-on-1 the other way. They got an unfortunate, well fortunate for us and unfortunate for them, I think Phil Kessel broke the stick on the shot they were automatically 3-on-2 and then the guys made a nice play and Toff made a nice shot.

Budaj, on whether he takes more pride in a shutout against Pittsburgh than other teams:
Definitely. I think you don’t take any shutout for granted, you’re very thankful for any shutout you can get. Obviously most importantly it’s a win, but obviously the shutout is like a cherry on a cake. It feels great and obviously it’s a tough building to get it but every shutout is very special. It doesn’t matter if you do it against Pittsburgh, a #1 team, or the last team in the league. It’s still very special because everybody is good. Everybody can score. Maybe obviously they have a little bit more skill than a few other teams but everybody can score so you don’t take for granted anything. It’s just you don’t want to have mindset to get shutouts, you want to have mindset to get wins and that’s what the most important thing is.

Budaj, on getting two wins after a disappointing loss in Buffalo:
We always knew we had it in us. I think it was a tough game in Buffalo starting with me to everybody else, and it’s just a long road trip, that’s not the way you want to start the road trip off. Then we got 2 big wins in tough buildings back-to-back and it’s just great. We’re going to take a good rest and get ready because this road trip keeps continuing and we’ve got to be sharp. We’re going to go to some tough buildings, you know Columbus is playing great hockey right now so we’ve just got to enjoy tonight, rest, come back to work tomorrow and get ready for the rest of the road trip too keep winning and keep going down the path that we started.

Alec Martinez, on Budaj’s performance:
Yeah, Buds was awesome. He was unbelievable. We obviously had a lot of PKs and on the PKs I thought we did a good job and a big part of the PKs is the goalie making a big save and Buds did that all night, both 5-on-4 and 5-on-5. He was unbelievable, he was probably the biggest reason why we were still in it and why we won.

Martinez, on what makes the Kings so dominant in overtime:
Yeah, I think it’s a few things. I think the one thing that does get overlooked is you’ve got to play good D. You play good D and you get opportunities the other way. It’s not, you play good D and beat one guy then all of a sudden that’s likely a 2-on-1, 2-on-2, and obviously puck possession is huge. Faceoffs are huge ‘cause that ties in to puck possession, holding on to the puck and I think patience, too. Sometimes if you come up the ice and you don’t really see a play developing or perhaps your routes aren’t quite in sync, I think that it’s important you turn it back and be patient and hold on to the puck and wait for that opportunity to strike. For whatever reason, like I said, I’m just riding Tanner and Tyler’s coattails.

Martinez, on getting two wins after a disappointing loss in Buffalo:
Yeah, you know obviously we were not happy with Buffalo and how that turned out. I think anytime you have a back-to-back and you pick up four points, especially on the road in two really tough buildings against two really tough teams, that’s obviously a positive. I think tonight especially was a real character win. It’s not easy getting in late at night and playing the defending Stanley Cup champs so I think it was a big effort from all of us in here and like I said, a big character win.

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