February 28 Rapid Reaction (feat. Dan Greenspan): Stars 4, Kings 3 (OT)

Rapid Reaction, feat. Dan Greenspan of NHL.com

Post-game Quotes

Willie Desjardins, on his thoughts on the game:
Well, I thought the guys played hard. It’s always is tough when you come off the road, you know, a long road trip, that first game back lots of times is a tough game, but I thought the guys came out with lots of energy. I thought they responded. I thought we had a couple, they came back, and then we did a good job towards the end of the second. We got one, so I thought overall the guys played hard and I thought Quick made that one save, for sure, that was an unbelievable save. So, you know, again it was just not quite finding enough.

Desjardins, on the team’s response to Quick’s paddle save in the third period:
It was a pretty good reaction. That was a pretty unbelievable save. And that’s why he’s so good, eh, because he never quits. He never gives up and he never quits and that was a good peak save.

Desjardins, on tonight’s penalty kill:
I thought it was good. That was a good power play. I think that they have lots of different weapons and I thought the guys did a good job of keeping it to the outside and I think quick, again, was there. There was a couple of big saves from him on it as well.

Desjardins, on the team playing with more pride:
Well, you know, a lot of times it starts in the room and I do believe we have good leaders and I think that those are the guys that push and I think Kopitar is a big game player. He plays hard for us. I thought Brown was good, Doughty was good in the back end. All the guys who are big guys played hard. Even saying that, it was good to see some of the young guys step up too with good efforts.

Anze Kopitar, on not getting the win despite playing better:
Yeah, I mean that road trip was warm and really cold, so obviously tonight was better, but at the end of the day it’s the wins that count and the two points and we couldn’t get it done again.

Kopitar, on whether the road trip was draining:
I mean we’ve been on longer road trips and tougher road trips so that shouldn’t be the case.

Kopitar, on what needs to happen for the team to break the current losing streak:
I mean just eliminate mistakes. I don’t feel like, you know, some of the goals that the other team scored, it’s clear cut off of our mistakes and eliminate those and keep on working hard.

Kopitar, on whether the team played with more heart tonight:
Yeah, we did. We got embarrassed a couple of times on the last road trip and we certainly addressed that and we’ve got to play with pride obviously. We’ve always done that, if you’re wearing a Kings uniform. So, I thought tonight the effort was there, but we can’t be satisfied with this. Not just the effort, but we need to start winning games.

Sean Walker, on his look in overtime:
No, I think that was probably the only time I could shoot it. He was, I was still trying to beat him, and he had a pretty good stick on me I think. I mean he was definitely reaching in there, but at least I got a got a good shot off. But yeah, that was pretty much all I could do, put it down there.

Walker, on the team’s effort and focus in tonight’s game:
I thought overall it was pretty good. We led most of the game. Obviously it’s frustrating to lose it in the third. It seems like that’s a common trend right now, but I think we were just trying to focus on structure as much as we could and attention to details and capitalizing when we could. I think special teams were pretty good tonight and I think overall it was good. We just have got to find a way when we’ve got the lead in the third, to bear down and shut it down and make sure we get the win.

Post-game Notes

–With the overtime loss, Los Angeles fell to 88-105-42 all-time against the Dallas franchise, a record that includes a home mark of 51-44-23. The Kings finish the season series against the Stars with a 1-1-1 mark.

–With the loss, the Kings fell to 14-16-4 against the Western Conference, 6-8-2 against the Central Division, 7-8 in games that go to overtime, 16-4-2 when scoring first, 9-0-1 when leading after one period, 16-1-3 when leading after two periods overtime and 14-19-6 when outshot by their opponent.

–Los Angeles’ ten-game losing streak is tied for the second longest in team history, trailing the 11-game losing streak (0-9-0-2) from March 16 – April 4, 2004 and even with the 10-game losing streak from February 22 – March 9, 1984. The longest winless streak in franchise history is 17 games (0-13-4; W-L-T), set from January 29 – March 5, 1970.

–The Kings led for 44:21 of tonight’s game. Over the previous nine games on the losing streak, the Kings led for 20:43 of game time (9:25 @ BOS; 2:57 @ WSH; 7:23 vs VAN and 0:58 @ TBL).

–The Kings finished the month of February with a 3-7-4 record for 10 points, the third highest point total in a month this season and also the second worst winning percentage in a month (.357).

–Anze Kopitar collected his ninth multi-point game of the season (2-1-3) in tonight’s game, his third three-point game, tying a season high in goals and points in a game in the process.

–Trevor Lewis appeared in his 600th career game.

–The Kings attempted 62 shots (30 on goal, 15 blocked, 17 missed). The Stars attempted 58 shots (33 on goal, 14 blocked, 11 missed). Forwards Tyler Seguin and Tyler Toffoli led all skaters with six shots on goal apiece, while Toffoli’s nine shot attempts led the way.

–Los Angeles won 36-of-67 faceoffs (54%). Adrian Kempe won 3-of-10, Anze Kopitar won 19-of-26, Trevor Lewis won 4-of-9 and Jeff Carter won 10-of-21 and Jonny Brodzinski won 0-of-1.

Post-game Highlights

–Lead photo via Adam Pantozzi/NHLI