March 23 postgame quotes: Kopitar, Pearson, Bishop

Anze Kopitar, on whether the win gave off a feel of a vintage Kings performance:
Yeah, it felt that way, especially the second and third periods I felt we were holding onto the puck a lot better, making the plays, just playing hockey, just reacting on the ice instead of thinking too much and kind of being hesitant. Obviously we’ve got to do more of the same in the next coming weeks. [Reporter: Is there a way to bottle that and keep going?] Yeah, I think part of it is confidence, obviously, and I think after a game like this, we did a lot of good things. You kind of bottle that, you remind yourself you’ve still got it and you go out on Saturday and do the same.

Tanner Pearson, on getting bodies, skates and pucks to the front of the net:
We were able to create stuff from the O-zone. I think we had five-on-five goals, we had every kind of goal – PK, power play. The power play was big for us tonight, and our PK did a good job. Obviously the five-on-three goal wasn’t ideal to get down two men, but we did a good job battling back.

Pearson, on the set-up of his his shorthanded goal:
I knew I just had to get it past [Josh Morrissey]. I think it actually kind of got stuck up in the snow after I chipped it there, and the D-man kind of stayed with Carts, so I had a clean shot and went far side.

Pearson, on the feeling with nine games remaining:
Well, we’re still alive, so take it game-by-game and focus on two points at a time. Tonight was a start for us, and hopefully we can keep this one going.

Ben Bishop, on his first win with the Kings:
It’s nice. A little longer than I would’ve liked, but we’ll take it. The boys played really well tonight and a big third period, and obviously a big two points.

Bishop, on bouncing back from a fluky bounce on Patrik Laine’s goal:
That’s one of those things where obviously it happens and you’re pretty mad, but at the same time you can’t really do much about it. You just kind of forget about it and move on. That type of stuff happens through an 82-game season, and sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don’t, and obviously that one wasn’t on our side. But the guys were playing really well. That penalty kill, the guys were doing a great job and [it was] just kind of an unfortunate bounce, so I don’t think anybody was discouraged coming into the period down 2-1. So we fought back, kind of shut it down there, and obviously had abig special teams night for the power play there.

Bishop, on whether it’s “liberating” to just “go out and play”:
Yeah, I think when you come up with a big win tonight, it puts you on the right foot moving forward here, and now we can kind of just keep going and just play our best and try to get wins. You never know what can happen in this league, especially with this team. A really veteran team, it’s a really good team, too. You never know what can happen. You just kind of take it one game at a time here and enjoy this for a couple hours and then obviously get ready for the Rangers.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.