On how demanding it was to keep pace in the Anaheim game, given the physicality:
I didn’t see any issues with the pace, and quite honest, I didn’t think we were as physical as we needed to be for probably the middle part of the hockey game. When we got our forecheck established and started getting more contact – and it’s not always about running a guy over like the MacDermid or the Manson hit, it’s about making contact to force pucks on the wall and force players to get rid of pucks when you’re trying to get separation. Those plays are also effective, but I thought our forecheck was a lot more effective in the third period. When you play in the Pacific Division, I think you’re going to get used to that. Even if teams aren’t real physical teams, I think that you see teams that are extremely competitive on the puck, and that takes its toll as well. I don’t think that part of the game was anything out of the ordinary.
On how the team evolved in the most recent five-game segment:
We got seven points, which was good. I thought our special teams performed well. We’d still like to see our chance totals come down. Our goals-against climbed a little bit in that segment, which is something we’re certainly aware of, and I think that’s something that every team in the league is trying to address, and certainly we are as well. We like what we’ve done offensively. Our power play’s helped there, but we don’t think anything we’re doing offensively leads to not being better defensively and we don’t think any commitment defensively takes away from what we’re trying to do offensively. If there’s one area we want to get better at, it’s we want to tighten up a little bit. [Reporter: What do you think is the cause for that going up – the goals and chances against?] If I could put it on one area, it’s probably puck management. I think we play hard. In terms of structure of defending, if you look at the chances we’re giving up, I think it’s coming from turnovers whether it’s a D-zone turnover or we’re trying to exit the zone, or maybe a play in the neutral zone where you’re going to force them to play in the offensive zone, those are all turnovers. So if there’s one area that I’d like to see us improve to get those numbers down, it would be puck management. Even the goal at the end of the power play last night was a puck we had. I think the guys are trying to make the right plays but didn’t execute, and trying to make a little handoff to get the puck out, and it ends up in your net. That’s probably the one main cause of the climb in that number.
On when he realized Alex Iafallo could make meaningful contributions:
We’ve been happy with his game all along. That’s why he’s been a fixture on that line. We liked him all along. I didn’t know him very well before they signed him, but he came in here in development camp and looked like a good player, but you’ve got to be careful because he’s a little bit older, so you expect him to look a little better than the 18-year-old kids he’s playing with. But then you’ve got development camp, rookie camp, and he still looked impressive, and the game that really caught my eye was the Vegas game. We went in there after the China trip and we had a lot of young guys in our lineup, and Vegas really came after us, and I thought he was really a bright light in that game where he kind of gave a little glimpse of what he’s capable of. But, really, his consistency has been there all year. I think there was some concern about production early on. We weren’t concerned about it, just because of what he was bringing to the line. When a kid’s getting chances, creating chances by playing the game the right way, you think it’s only a matter of time before he starts to get rewarded for that, and he filled in on the power play last night, took really good advantage of an opportunity. You love seeing a young player doing that. [Reporter: Because he’s older, is he maybe better equipped to handle an NHL schedule?] Well, I think it’s a big adjustment for every young player. The fact that he’s a little older and mature, I think he’s a well-conditioned guy. He’s a little more physically mature. I think it helps him. But the NHL schedule, there’s not a league in the world that can replicate an NHL schedule where you’re playing four or five games in an eight-day period. There’s junior hockey, there’s college hockey, European hockey – they’re primarily based around weekends. You don’t get weeks like you had on the road trip or weeks like we’ll have next week where you’re playing every other day and a back-to-back thrown in there. We’ve talked to him lots about it. Matt Price does a really good job where we track loads on our players, both practice and games, to get a really good sense of where they’re at in terms of fatigue. I think with Matt and Trent and our trainers, they’ve done a really good job of trying to give us a heads up on how much rest a guy needs, what’s he getting for recovery, and we can certainly help the young players when it comes to that.
On where he’ll watch the San Jose – Tampa Bay game tonight:
I’ll be at home. Either here or home. That’s my life. [Reporter: Will you put in a lot of game plan after tonight’s game?] I’ve started watching them now. I get through last night’s game, and usually the first thing we’ll do is review the game we played last night. I’ve watched them a little bit but not a lot. We have a pre-scout role together already. We look at A, B and C games. A would be the most recent, C would be the one furthest back, and we kind of track their lineup, track their special teams. Their systems don’t change a whole lot. Faceoff alignment might change based on their opponent, and personnel and special teams will change sometimes based on who’s going well and injuries. But the game tonight will be more just getting a sense of the flow of the game. San Jose plays a little different type of game maybe from the team that I was just watching, which was the Columbus game. I think we have a pretty good sense of their identity as a team, but we’ll watch the game tonight just to get a sense of personnel, how they match up against San Jose, against a team in our division, and usually it just reinforces what you already see. You might see something in the game that you want to grab because it’s important. Usually that relates to special teams. There might be a set-up or a personnel change that’s different than the recent games that we would make our guys aware of, but I think a lot of the prep will be done today prior to the game. We’ll just watch that as a follow-up tonight. [Reporter: If there’s a team that is similar to the Kings, do you try to watch Tampa against that team, as opposed to any other Tampa game?] Well, that’s a great question. It can be very helpful, especially in regards to special teams – if a team’s using a certain forecheck against their power play breakout that’s either effective or not very effective, like, we’ll go look for that sometimes. Or, last year with Washington, for instance, their power play was red hot, and if they went 0-for-5 against somebody, we’d go grab that game [to see] how they would go 5-for-5 on the PK against a power play that’s been red hot. With Tampa Bay, it’s an interesting challenge. Jeez, they’ve been impressive in all areas. It seems like they’re firing on all cylinders. They’re getting great production out of every corner of their locker room. I’m anxious to watch the game because I haven’t watched a lot of them, so I’d like to see a game start-to-finish just to get a better feel for ‘em, but just watching them, the pre-scout there, they’ve been impressive.
On Tampa Bay’s offensive tiers:
It’s interesting – they’ve played seven D and 11 forwards so much, and I think the reason they do that is because they’re so deep up front. They have lots of guys playing big minutes, and they end up doubling up guys like Kucherov who can play first and fourth line, which makes a very interesting match-up. I think they have 11 forwards that can handle bigger minutes, which at the end of the day, their top guys don’t play any more minutes, just that their bottom guys play more minutes. It creates a tough challenge for teams trying to match-up against that. I’m impressed with how hard they work, they compete with the puck. They play fast and their support game with the puck is fast, and they’re always looking to make plays, and their D are involved all the time, which a lot of teams are, but their ability to play fast and make plays has been impressive.
On any concern over Drew Doughty’s heavy usage, given another top team is next on the schedule:
Drew will tell you he’d wish he played 35 minutes every night. A day like today is more of a maintenance day for guys like Drew, and if you’d track the load over the last, let’s say three days, so you take Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, well, Tuesday he played 35 minutes, today he had a recovery day where he was upstairs with Matt Price and just making sure he’s got a really good recovery, get his body moving and get what he needs so he gets a full day of rest and recovery today and then get ready to play again tomorrow as opposed to some of the guys that skated who play 10 minutes last night, skate for 25 today, and play 10 tomorrow. At the end of the day, it evens out. Drew gets more rest today, those guys get a little more work today, and at the end of the day we’re hoping we keep everybody where they need to be. [Reporter: So it’s in totality-?] Yeah, there’s chronic and acute. Over time we try to track both of those, and like I said, I think we’re way further ahead with that than we were and you’ve got to talk to the player, too. But there are some metrics that can help you figure that out.
On whether Peter Budaj presents a unique challenge tomorrow night:
Not really. I think with Tampa, you’ve got to get to their goalie, right? Whether he’s in there or Vasilevskiy’s in there, there’s a big challenge of their team game and the way they play. At the end of the day, we’ve got to get people to the net, we’ve got to get pucks to the net, we’ve got to spend time in the offensive zone. We loved having Peter here, but he’s just a member of another team now. [Reporter: Safe to say you won’t have to do a whole lot of scouting for him?] Billy takes care of that, anyway. Billy does a really good job of making the players aware of the tendencies of goalies, where they might wind up to shoot in situations. Pierre has been a little more involved now in shootouts and what he sees in those situations, so we’ve got Billy and Pierre helping out with that stuff. If you do any research in my career, I’m not going to tell them on where to shoot on the goalie.
On whether the lack of panic in key situations can be taught or manufactured:
I think it gets a little revved up at times on the bench, but I think there’s a belief on the bench that of all the games we’ve played in, still even when we got down, there were times where we were playing well. Even with Nashville the other night, we thought we were playing well, but a couple breaks went against us. But I think there’s a belief in the group that if we stay with the process for 60 minutes, we still have a chance in the hockey game. I thought last night, key things happened at key times. Late goal in the first period. Now, OK, we’re right there. Late goal in the second period, now we’ve tied the second period. So, we lost the first, tied the second. They score a goal and go four-minute power play for them. I thought that was our probably our best kill of the night. We really limit their opportunities. I think the fact that there is a belief amongst the group that if we play the right way, if we’re not just waiting on Kopi, I think we think we can get help from other spots on the lineup, and I think our guys have really responded at critical times with big efforts.
Practice photos, courtesy Jon Bradley (follow him on Instagram):
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