Kings happy to have another day of practice

All things being equal, a Sunday-afternoon practice — particularly on Easter Sunday — isn’t ideal for players, but given the alternative, the Kings couldn’t have been happier to be on the ice today. The alternative, of course, was sitting home and contemplating the end of the season. The Kings still something to play for — Game 6, tomorrow night at Staples Center — so they were happy to be on the ice for a medium-length practice today.

STOLL: “That’s for sure. Any time you’re facing elimination, it’s good to be coming to the rink the next day and putting on equipment, that’s for sure. It was a big effort from everybody last night. Quickie was great for us again. We needed him to be our best player. We knew that, coming into the series, and we still know that. They had a lot of shots, but a lot of them from the outside, a lot of them from the perimeter. They did have some good, quality scoring chances, and Quickie was great for us. We had some big penalty kills in the third. Coming out and getting that early lead like that always helps. The young line over there [Richardson, Clifford and Simmonds] did a great job again of getting the lead, and Pens [Dustin Penner] had a big goal to make it 3-0. We just kind of kept playing. This time, we kept playing.”

Dustin Brown also talked about the team’s attitude the day after an elimination-game victory…

BROWN: “We had a big win there and now we’re back on home ice, so we’ve got to take advantage of it and have the same attitude we did up there. Guys should be ready to go. Our backs are against the wall, so the only way we’re going to win is to find ways to take care of our own end. That’s the key for us as a team, especially against the type of team they have.”