February 19 postgame quotes: Kopitar, Doughty

Anze Kopitar, on whether, results aside, he likes the way the team has played the last three games:
Well, I can’t like it just because we didn’t get any points in the last three. You know, we’re doing some good stuff but we also know that we can do it better and we’re going to have to do it better, that’s just bottom line. I mean, right now it’s crunch time. You can play your way in to contention and be in the mix right ’til the very end or play yourself out of the contention. The points are important but again, there’s some positive stuff but you know, obviously you’ve got to score and tonight there was chances but at the end of the day we didn’t score any goals so we can’t be happy with it.

Kopitar, on the mood in the locker room:
Well, I mean, the mood is as good as it can be. Like I said, we can’t be happy with the last three games the way they’ve gone. Again, there’s some bright spots but we’ve got to work on our game and make sure that we play better and obviously score more goals.

Kopitar, on whether he’s felt better about the way the Kings have played the last couple of games:
Yeah, I mean I said it before, obviously we can’t be happy with the results nor can we be happy with our game either but there’s some positives and we have to improve on that and play better and score more goals.

Kopitar, on whether it’s tough to give up only one goal and still lose the game:
Well yeah, I thought for the most part we played a solid road game. I mean, we didn’t give up a whole lot. There will be changes against, that’s just the way it is, but we didn’t give up a whole lot. But obviously in order to win games and I don’t think we did enough on the power play to generate chances and create some type of momentum our way and we’re going to look at that and that’s one of the things we’ve got to get better at.

Drew Doughty, on what the Ducks did to keep the Kings off the scoreboard:
I don’t know. They just played good defensive hockey and the goalie played well and we didn’t get enough good scoring opportunities.

Doughty, on what the Kings could have done to get more scoring opportunities:
I think we throw a lot of pucks at the net that either get covered by the goalie or the rebound goes to them and I think a lot of times we can hold on to pucks and wait for a late trailer and find him for a grade-A scoring opportunity or just drive the puck to the net rather than throwing it at the feet from the corner. I know it’s a good play sometimes but I do think a lot of the times we have better plays to be made.

Doughty, on whether there’s concern in the Kings locker room:
Oh yeah, lots of concern. We’re still fully confident that we can turn it on now and get back in to that playoff spot that we want to be in but the longer we wait, the harder it’s going to be and right now we’re losing points and other teams are winning games that aren’t playing against us. Yeah we need to get on track immediately. That was the focus before tonight’s game and we failed so it’s on to the next game and a must win.

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