October 7 Rapid Reaction (feat. Greg Beacham): Kings 4, Red Wings 2

Rapid Reaction, feat. Greg Beacham of the Associated Press:

Post-game Quotes

John Stevens, on Jack Campbell’s performance:
I thought he was terrific. They get some really good movement in the zone. They’re always looking for those lateral plays to the backside. I thought he really made some key saves at key times to kind of allow us to stabilize things a little bit. It was a really, really solid performance coming in on short notice.

Stevens, on wanting to see improvement in puck management:
I think that’s an area of our game that needs to continue to get better. I think if we just look at overall mindset for our hockey team, it’s about managing the puck. [inaudible] teams play so fast now, we’re trying to play faster, and I thought there were times we were better at it. The one area of our game I’d really like to see us change our mindset is that we don’t want to pass the puck into the net. When you have people going to the net you can play pucks off the net because you know people are going there. You force the opponent to face their net. I just thought we were guilty of hanging onto pucks too long where we could’ve put them towards the net, and I think that’s only going to help us when we convince ourselves to do so.

Stevens, on how many goals Iafallo can score this season:
I wouldn’t even want to put a number on it, to be honest with you. I think you start getting fixated on a number, you stop focusing on the process. We felt all along that he did a lot of good things last year. Didn’t capitalize on some of our opportunities. It looks like he’s taken his game to another lovel in all areas. He’s gotten stronger, a little bit quicker, alittle more confident with the puck, and I thought that last goal was just a terrific catch-and-release. Got to a spot, got it up in the net quickly. That’s a really good thing to see when you run off a really good forecheck by Kovy. I wouldn’t put a number on it, I’d just like him to continue to get better at the little things he does, and he’ll put himself in situations where he gets scoring opportunities.

Stevens, on whether he has a better sense of how long Jonathan Quick will be out:
I do not.

Stevens, on Jaret Anderson-Dolan appearing unfazed as a 19-year-old playing in the NHL:
He’s an interesting kid, to be honest with you. You start to find out more about him as he’s here longer, but he’s a kid that’s been very serious about being a hockey player for quite some time. Even though he’s young, I think he’s trained and he’s physically mature beyond his years, and I think he’s mentally mature beyond his years. I think he has a really solid family upbringing that’s really supported him through that process, and I think it was great – a lot of them were here tonight to see him play. I would say he’s a little bit of an outlier in that sense because he’s so well trained both mentally and physically that he’s not fazed by being in that situation. If you asked him, he expects to be in that situation. I think he came to training camp not just waiting to see how the week went. I think he came here with the intention to try and make the hockey team, and that’s something you love in a young player.

Anze Kopitar, on tonight’s forecheck being more effective:
We obviously looked at some video and tried to just be a little more aggressive. If we’re going to so-called ‘get burned’, we don’t want to get burned on the aggressive side of things not holding back so I thought tonight we did a pretty good job, but there’s still stuff we can do better. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction and we’ll keep building on it.

Kopitar, on his line’s chemistry:
It’s been pretty good. Just like our team game, there’s still room for improvement, but we’ll chip away and keep getting better. Create more chances and score goals.

Kopitar, on Campbell’s performance:
It was really awesome to see him come in. He’s a hard worker and the ultimate team guy. To get his first win of the season, it’s great. I’m sure it builds his confidence up a little bit and we’re going to need him on this road trip so it’s great to see.

Jack Campbell, on stepping in for Quick:
I think everybody on this team is really detailed in the work we do. I think we work really hard every day … and try to get better every day. And you never know when these things can happen so it’s part of the sport and you’ve just got to jump in and make sure you play well to get the win.

Campbell, on settling in pretty early:
I thought we started the game well. We obviously got that power play so that always helps and I knew the boys were going to come out and play hard for me. They always do and they played hard for 60 minutes and it’s great to get a win.

Campbell, on getting his first win of the season:
I just think it’s big for the team. We got a big point against San Jose and obviously wanted two but to get three out of four to open the season at home and now we go on the road, for my own confidence it’s obviously great, but more importantly for the team it’s big to get three out of four.

Campbell, on facing a large number of shots with high traffic:
Detroit does a really good job of hitting that late guy or that back side guy, but I thought everybody did a great job of doing their jobs and getting in lanes. I could name everybody that had blocks but off the top of my head, Muzz had a couple there at the end of the game that were huge, and then Dewey. Everybody was contributing and it made my job a lot easier.

Campbell, on beating Detroit as a Michigander:
It kind of gives you a little goosebumps or chills because I grew up watching ‘em and my grandpa was always a big fan of the Wings so I’m sure he’s happy, but I don’t know–I’m sure he’s a Kings fan now, but it was nice just playing and trying to help the team and great to get the two points.

Jaret Anderson-Dolan, on his first NHL game:
It was a lot of fun. It’s fast and I’m kind of glad to get that one out of the way and just kind of focus on playing my game and developing and getting better every day.

Anderson-Dolan, on keeping his focus on his style of play:
Yeah, for sure. I honestly wasn’t too nervous before the game. Everyone was just saying, ‘Play your game.’ I’m here for a reason and I try to do the things that got me here and keep building off of that.

Anderson-Dolan, on whether he experienced any butterflies:
Honestly, it was pretty even-keel. I think there’s a couple moments when you kind of look up and that’s when you realize that you’re playing in the NHL and that’s a very cool moment, but I tried not to think about it too much and just focus on the moment and playing my game.

Jeff Blashill, on playing from behind:
Well it’s not an easy league to play catch up in for sure. I thought we had opportunities to score that we didn’t. I thought Jack Campbell played well, so good for him, unfortunate for us. We could’ve scored on a few more of our chances. But all we can do is focus on making sure that we’re getting better here, and I thought again there was a lot of things we did good. We’ve got to make sure we repeat a lot of that performance tomorrow night and find a way to score a bit more.

Frans Nielsen, on the team’s performance:
I think we gave it our best tonight. I think we played a really good game. It was tough, but it was good to see that we can play like that. And if we keep repeating and play the way we did today we’re going to win a lot of games.

Dylan Larkin, on any positive takeaways:
I think the way we played with the puck. We took care of it. At the end there was a couple costly mistakes and turnovers that they capitalized on. But if we come out and play like that– we had a great start. We neutralized their heavy game by moving the puck quick in the offensive zone, and we had a ton of shots. So if we play like that I think we’re going to be a hard team to play against.

Post-game Notes

-With the win, Los Angeles moved to 87-82-32 all-time against Detroit, a record that includes a home mark of 51-35-15. The Kings have won three straight games against the Red Wings and five of their last six in the head-to-head series.

-With the win, Los Angeles improved to 1-0-0 against the Eastern Conference, 1-0-0 against the Atlantic Division, 1-0 in two-goal games, 1-0-0 when scoring first, 1-0-0 when tied after one period, 1-0-0 when leading after two periods and 1-0-1 when outshot by their opponent.

-By appearing in his 330th consecutive game, Drew Doughty tied Anze Kopitar’s club record, set from March 21, 2007 through March 26, 2011. The team’s second longest active consecutive games streak belongs to Tanner Pearson at 164.

-Ilya Kovalchuk registered his 400th and 401st career assists. With two points, he is again a point-a-game player in his career, totaling 818 points (417-401=818) in 818 games.

-Alec Martinez played his 498th career game.

-Jaret Anderson-Dolan became the 21st teenager to play for the Kings, and the first since Kyle Clifford on October 9, 2010. At 19 years and 25 days, he became the 10th youngest player to play a regular season game for Los Angeles.

-Alex Iafallo (2-0=2) tallied his second career multi-goal game (also March 1, 2018 vs. CBJ).

-Jack Campbell stopped 36-of-38 shots, earning his first win of the season and third of his career.

Post-game Highlights

The Kings are scheduled to fly to Winnipeg on Monday and will not practice at Toyota Sports Center.