May 24 postgame quotes: Carter, Doughty, Quick

Jeff Carter, on the “fun” he has had playing with Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli:
It’s been great. Obviously they have a lot of chemistry from playing together in Manchester. They’re working and they’re having fun. They use their speed and their skill to create opportunities. Kind of dragging me along with them, so it’s been good.

Carter, on how he chose number 77:
7 was taken, so I doubled it up.

Carter, on the importance of taking a series lead:
Obviously a big game. You want to win ’em all. I think we kind of rode the momentum from Game 2 in Chicago. Guys did a good job.

Carter, on how to settle his rookie linemates down:
You don’t have to do much to get them to relax. They’re pretty easy-going guys. Tyler was a big part of our team last year in the playoffs, especially when Mike went out. He really stepped up. Tanner was around all playoffs. He’s kind of been through it, seen it. Those guys have played in big games before, working their way up through junior and whatnot. They’re great players. Great players shine at big times.

Carter, on Willie Mitchell’s return to the lineup:
He’s been great. He’s been around a long time. He’s one of those guys that does it all for us back there. He’s obviously huge on the penalty kill. You know, he just brings kind of a calming presence back there. Drew would kind of know that a little more. He brings it. So glad to have him back.

Carter, on the chemistry with his linemates:
They’re stepping up. I don’t think we’re really doing anything that they wouldn’t do. They use their speed. They keep the puck going ahead. Obviously when they get chances, they got as much skill as anybody on the team. They’ve been showing it.

Carter, on what impresses him about Toews:
He’s a total package. He’s obviously the heart and soul of their team. He leads them and they follow. He plays a solid 200-foot game. Arguably one of the best in the game. He’s a real key for us. We’ve got to shut him down.

Carter, on the importance of being physical with Chicago’s defensemen:
It’s big. They’re obviously a pretty mobile group back there. They like to get pucks up and join the rush. I think if we’re not finishing our checks, playing hard on them, they’re going to create offense. It’s a huge part of the series for us.

Carter, on the team’s confidence with Jonathan Quick in goal:
Yeah, we’re a confident team with him back there, obviously. I think anybody that watches the game knows what he brings to our team. Like I said, if we have breakdowns or whatnot, we always know he’s there to back us up. That’s a pretty good feeling.

Carter, on the team’s scoring surge:
We’ve been doing the things that we need to – using our speed, getting our pucks behind their D. When we’re physical on their D, we create turnovers. We’ve been bearing down on our chances. That’s what we need to do.

Carter, on the luxury of playing alongside players who help maintain possession:
It’s great. A lot of the goals that we’ve scored have come from them using their speed, tracking down loose pucks, creating turnovers. As soon as they do that, their instinct is to get the puck right to the net. It’s been working for us.

Carter, on balancing being comfortable and confident against Chicago:
Well, never too high, never too low I think is kind of how we go. We know who we’re playing. We know what they’ve got over there and the success that they’ve had the last few years. We’re up 2-1, but we got a long ways to go here. We need to bear down. We need to be better, too.

Drew Doughty, on the importance of taking a series lead:
Yeah, it was an important game. We came back here. We stole one in their barn. We knew we needed to get up early. This is a good team. Tough to come back when we’re down. We don’t want to be put in those positions. We had a great effort. We were determined to come back. When you go into a third, the game was ours for the taking. We just had to, you know, continue to push forward and not sit back.

Doughty, on how to neutralize Jonathan Toews:
He’s obviously a great player, a great leader for their team. There’s just times when he takes over games. We knew kind of in the first period after he got those two goals he was putting it on himself to take over the rest of the game. It was definitely a focus in between periods to step up our game on him, try to get physical with him, take his space away. I thought everyone, forwards and D, did a good job on him from there on out.

Doughty, on the importance of responding to Toews’ shorthanded goal:
It was kind of an unfortunate bounce, how he turned it over, stuff like that. It’s kind of a dagger when you’re out there on the power play, extra man, they get a shorthanded one. It hurts a little bit. To have the character to come back and capitalize still on that same power play, that just shifted the momentum right back on our side. Power play goals are huge. Special teams, you don’t get many in the playoffs. They call it pretty tight. I thought the power play stepped up tonight. The PK was great as well.

Doughty, on the team’s playoff composure:
I just think, you know, our leaders, they’re the ones that lead the way. They start having that composure. When they’re showing that, I think the younger guys just kind of do the same thing. They see the guys that have been successful in this league so far, they see the things they’re doing, they just try to do the exact same things. Obviously Darryl, you know, he’s not going to let us step off the gas pedal at any time. He’s going to be hard on us no matter what the score is. Yeah, we’ve just got to play 60 minutes, and that’s it.

Doughty, on what it says about the Kings that they’ve taken a series lead:
We’re here for a reason. We’re not here to win a few games. Our ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup. Obviously got a lot of obstacles before that can happen. This is our toughest one yet. Chicago is a good team. We know they’re not going to go away easy. We’re only up 2-1. A lot of work left to do. Looking forward to it. Can’t wait for Game 4.

Carter, on finishing the game strong:
I think that comes from the guys in our room. We have a lot of character guys, played in a lot of big games, know how to win. We play a strong defensive game. I think that’s really where a lot of our offense and all that comes from. We lock it down. For some reason when we give up a chance, Quicky is always there to bail us out.

Doughty, on limiting Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane this series:
Trying to frustrate them, give them no room, play them physical. We know that Kane likes to pick up the puck, kind of be fancy, have a lot of room, gain speed that way. So we’re just trying to limit the ice for him. Play him hard. Same thing with Sharp. We have to play those guys hard. Even though they haven’t done much lately, we know they’re going to have their best game in Game 4. We’ve got to be prepared for that.

Jonathan Quick, on whether the Kings have seized the momentum in the series:
I said it last game that it’s tough to tell if momentum carries over from game to game. Zero-zero, and we’re trying to win 60 minutes on Monday night.

Quick, on whether the penalty kill has given the Kings a lift:
It was good. At the time, we might have even been down, or tie game, or whatever it was. It was close. We had some big kills. We were able to capitalize on a few chances down at the other end and get the win. That was big.

Quick, on whether it was easy to “shrug off” the shorthanded goal:
Yep. You give up so many goals over your career, so that’s another one.

Quick, on whether there was a turning point that allowed the Kings to capture momentum:
I don’t know. I think we got some pucks to the net and guys went there hard and we were able to capitalize on a few opportunities. We played great in our end there in the back end of the second and throughout the third.

Quick, on his second period save on Patrick Kane:
I think he missed his shot, to be honest. He might like that back. Obviously he’s one of the most talented players around the net in the world, so you don’t want to give him opportunities like that. Luckily it didn’t go in. We kept fighting there.

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