Stoll, on the playoffs

Here’s what Jarret Stoll had to say today about his first playoff experience with the Kings. Stoll’s only previous playoff experience was in 2005-06, when he made the Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers…

Question: As a veteran who has been to the playoffs, what’s your advice to the younger players?

STOLL: “I think just have fun. It’s an exciting time. Every building you go into, there’s electricity in the building and atmosphere around the city and around the team. It’s great. It’s a fun time of year to play, and enjoy it but realize that these opportunities don’t come around all that often. I’ve played seven, eight years and this is my second trip to the playoffs, so it doesn’t come easy, and realize too that anybody can win. There’s rankings and so forth right now, but once the playoffs start, it means nothing. It’s a seven-game series, it’s a battle and anybody can beat anybody.”

Question: Do you tell them about the difference in intensity and physical play?

STOLL: “It’s two or three steps up, for sure, in every aspect. Every mistake is magnified, every turnover, every bad shift. It’s very physical. There’s a lot of momentum changes throughout the series, so you have to have an even-keel kind of mindset. That’s probably going to be the most important thing that we can bring. We’re a young team, with not a lot of experience, but we’ve got some guys that have been there, so having that even-keel mindset is going to be huge for us.”

Question: Any concern that you haven’t had a lot of success against them this season?

STOLL: “It’s a new game, a new season. We feel that we have a lot of strengths that we can bring to the table against this team, and hopefully have a great series and win it. They’re a great team and so are we, so it’s going to be a battle.”

Question: Can you take something out of the last game against them, the win?

STOLL: “We definitely can take some confidence out of that game, for sure. Getting to Luongo, eight goals against him, it was just one of those games where pucks were going in from everywhere. You’ve got to take that out of it too, but it was definitely good to beat them like that at home. Hopefully that’s in the back of their minds a little bit too, but everything is thrown out now. They’re focusing and preparing, as we are, and it’s a great time.”

Question: What’s it going to be like to play in that building in the playoffs?

STOLL: “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s probably one of the better buildings to play in, I think, in the league. The fans are great. They’re going to be into it. It’s going to be loud, it’s going to be exciting. I don’t know what they’re going to do, whether it’s going to be the white towels or what, but it’s going to be fun going in there and playing.”