February 3 postgame quotes: Arizona

Rick Tocchet, on what he thought led to the loss:
Yeah, it was probably up there with one of the worst games for us. You could tell LA wanted to win this hockey game. We just had a lot of guys that had off nights tonight. That’s what’s disappointing. The pushback was there. It wasn’t there for some guys and that’s what’s disappointing for our hockey club.

Tocchet, on the importance of winning battles against the walls:
Yeah, you’re playing LA and you’ve got to win those battles. Or you’ve got to push back. Even come out one-nothing, we warned the players—hey you know, it’s only one-nothing. We didn’t generate much chances the first period and that’s what happens. You don’t put their defense on heels.

Tocchet, on whether Trevor Lewis’ shorthanded goal was the breaking point:
Well, yeah for sure. We had a couple of chances and you know we’re having a tough time scoring right now and then all of the sudden it’s couple guys let a guy get behind us and it’s a goal. So yeah, that’s a back-breaker, but it’s still two-nothing. You should still be able to stay competitive.

Tocchet, on what he saw on Kempe’s goal that led him to challenge:
I don’t know. Looked at it and I thought it was (goaltender interference). But listen, those guys are two good refs. So you’ve got to live by the call.

Tocchet, on the challenge of playing against teams who are vying for a playoff spot:
Yeah, I said that before the second. You can’t hide. You know we’re going to play teams that are going to scratch and claw. You’re going to get the best of the best and if you’re not in a compete mode–and that’s my job to get these guys to compete–then you’re going to get embarrassed.

Luke Schenn, on the loss:
I mean obviously we weren’t good enough right from the start. I don’t know. There’s no excuses. Just top-to-bottom I don’t think anyone played a good game, obviously when you get beat like that. We knew LA was going to come out hard. They got beat pretty good in Nashville so they were expecting a pretty big bounce-back game. So we knew you know fight for a playoff position. And obviously we weren’t up for the task there and it was pretty one-sided.

Schenn, on needing to recognize that the Kings were playing a “must-win” game:
Yeah exactly. They’ve got a great veteran team out there and guys who’ve won Stanley Cups before and you know, obviously they’re fighting for their playoff lives so we knew they were coming and we just, like I said, we weren’t good enough. Weren’t up to the task, start to finish. Obviously, like I said, pretty one-sided. I don’t know how many grade-A chances they had. I mean the score was what it was and maybe it could’ve even been worse. Not a good game obviously. We had a stretch there where we felt like we were building something and playing a little bit better. Had a bit of a letdown in the last game against Dallas, but tonight was just unacceptable.

Schenn, on what was said during the first intermission:
It was close there and we felt like we didn’t play particularly well, but we were only down there by a goal and it’s still anyone’s game at that point. And you know, lost two second periods in the last two games. That’s kind of what put us back. So definitely not a full 60-minute effort at all. We’ve obviously got to improve. We’ve got two more road games here and I think Winnipeg and Minnesota have some of the best home records in the league so we’d better get our act together in the next couple days.