September 16 postgame quotes: John Stevens

On his impressions of the 4-3 overtime loss:
I thought we were a step slower early in the first period. It just seemed like our execution wasn’t very good, especially in the neutral zone. I think breakouts and neutral zone seemed like we were just a little bit slow moving pucks and a little bit slow getting available on pucks. I thought we got better as the game went on, but certainly in the beginning, it just looked like it was kind of scrambly play on our part, certainly. A little bit different, a lot of power play situations for both teams, but I thought we settled a little bit and we started to skate, we started moving pucks quicker and we started to work to be available a little quicker and it allowed us to spend a little more time in the offensive zone.

On getting a sense of how exactly the league will be cracking down on slashing:
Yeah, I think what happens when they put a new rule in like that, it’s like they’re looking for it. I was trying to get a sense on the Kempe penalty – he’s got four penalties tonight – but the one looked like the guy tripped on the other guy when his stick was in the air. Because they’re looking for it, it’s as hard on them as it is on us, so they’re trying to enforce the rules the way they want them enforced, and they’re going to have a learning curve as well. I think what you can’t do is get frustrated by it, you’ve just got to learn from it. You get a sense as we move through preseason of what’s accepted and what isn’t. You certainly have a lot more detail and do some work and make sure you’ve got good positioning. As long as they’re difficult, if they’re stick battles, stick-on-stick, the fact that you’re getting those penalties means you’re in the battles, but there’s certainly going to have to be an accelerated learning curve when you see that many special teams in the course of a hockey game. I think they were all stick infractions like that, so it’s something we’re definitely going to have to continue to get a better sense of.

On Michael Cammalleri, Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown’s first game towards rekindling chemistry:
Again, I think it’s a hard game to judge just because there’s so much special teams there. You see there’s a little bit of offensive chemistry where they know where each other are. I thought Brownie got skating there pretty well. Just want to make sure that they get a sense where they’re going. Somebody’s going to the net, somebody’s attacking. They had a couple good looks on the power play. I actually thought the five-on-three had a couple really good looks and they didn’t score, but again, that’s a first time out in a tough environment with the amount of power plays, so we’ll need more time to look at it.

On anyone that had impressed him:
I hadn’t seen the Fantenberg kid play before, and I thought he had a good account of himself, and for not knowing him, we put him on the right side and he hasn’t played a ton of right side. I thought he came in and gave us a pretty good performance.

On Christian Folin, and whether he knew much about him before he joined Los Angeles:
I didn’t know a lot about him, but he’d played against us and played well against us when he was with Minnesota. He’s another kid that’s had a good camp to this point. I think he moves well for a big guy. This was our first time seeing him in a game. I think he’s done well in camp so far in terms of moving around. He’s in really good shape, he’s fully recovered and he’s healthy now. Again, we’re going to need more time to look at all these guys, but he certainly got off to a good start. [Reporter: He’s not a flashy guy by any means, but as far as defense, does his style just kind of fit right in with the philosophy of this organization?] Well, he’s a big guy that moves pretty well, and in today’s game you have to move pretty well, and he has to be able to move pucks, and he can do those things. I’ll get a better sense of what exactly he is, his identity as a player, the more we see him and spend more time with him, but certainly he’s got good size, good puck skills, and he moves well, so there’s lots to work with there.

On who the third goalie traveling to China will be:
I think it’s getting released – Zatkoff’s going to come with us. Kuemper and Quick are the three that are going to make the trip.

On whether there will be any surprises towards the China roster:
Not really. We decided a long time ago we’d take five lines and eight defensemen, and we have two practices over there. Long way to go if you need somebody. We kind of had to find that happy medium where there’s not a lot of games over there, so you’re taking people over there who’ll probably play one game. But pretty much everybody that’s expected to go. Mersch would be the only addition that didn’t play games last year, and the guys on the back end are all the guys you’d probably expect to be going. [Reporter: You packed?] I’m going to pack now.

-Lead photo via Juan Ocampo/NHLI