Williams on big games: `play on emotion’

The Kings just keep coming for the Kings. Last week, in consecutive games, the Kings faced the four-time defending Pacific Division-champion San Jose Sharks, the league-leading St. Louis Blues and the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. The Kings managed to win two of those three, but tonight they hit the road to face the perennially strong — and Stanley Cup runners-up — Vancouver Canucks, at the start of a four-game trip. Every team in the playoff race right now has nothing but “big games’’ on the schedule. In a way, that’s how they like it. Even a veteran such as Justin Williams, who has already won a Stanley Cup (with Carolina). Williams told Jim Fox that the tougher games are, in a way, easier to play…

WILLIAMS: “Sometimes you get into games that are big games, and you just play on emotion. That’s just when the drive comes out. That’s when the competitive athlete comes out in you, when there’s big games. It just seems like it’s easier to find energy for them.

“Basically, games come down to will and emotion at this time. Not even just at this time, but throughout the whole year. That’s basically what it comes down to. Five or six years ago, you could sometimes win from just having better players. It’s just not the case (now). It’s a big team game that is going on right now. I think we’re embracing that and we’re playing together as a team pretty well. Yeah, it could have gone either way (against the Bruins), but we need to find gear six.’’

Darryl Sutter also talked about the team’s mindset coming off of the Boston game…

SUTTER: “A hard game. It wasn’t for normal players, both San Jose and St. Louis and the game (against Boston). What changes now is, you’re on the road. We’ve had a nice time of it. We’ve been home for, really, 10 days.’’