Quotes – McLellan, Kempe, Anderson on improving the PP, offensive growth, Byfield, Reign, games of meaning

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, Insiders!

The Kings are off today, so no practice report to follow. The team returns to action tomorrow morning in El Segundo, before Tuesday’s game against Edmonton kicks off a busy end-of-season schedule. As promised, some Kings quotes from Todd McLellan, Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe from the last two days that didn’t make it into practice notebooks.

On Improving The Power Play

Kempe – It’s the execution. When you’re out there, it’s like playing 5-on-5, when you don’t score, you get frustrated and try to over-do things. Now, we feel like when we’re in the zone, we don’t really move the puck as well as we did last year, because last year I thought we had a pretty good power play, scored a lot of goals, and this year it’s just static. We’re standing in our spots, trying to move it around and we don’t want to lose the puck, so we try to just take the time that we have. We’ve got to get back to moving the puck, but it’s a confidence thing too. When the power play is going well, you score a couple of goals, you get that going again. We feel like you have that pressure on you when you’re out there and you don’t execute as well as you want to, and then you get in your own head. We’ve got to keep it simple, move the puck faster, shoot the puck and eventually the goals will come. Don’t try to over-do things, don’t try to look for the hardest plays, I feel like we need to take what we get.

McLellan – It starts with us, it starts with the coaching staff, it doesn’t automatically just fall on the players. We’ve given them some guidance and structure at 5-on-5 that’s working well, we’ve got to give them some guidance and structure on the power play and penalty kill. I think that we have a foundation to work off of, but there’s some things that we have to do better and we will talk about this and try to adjust as we go. There are some things that are hard to figure out, really, when you analytically look at opportunities created on the power play, shots from the slot, secondary chances, there’s a lot of positives there, but at the end of the day, the number isn’t any good. We just have to figure out a way to take the positives and get the puck over the line a little bit more, and we’ll try to do that.

On Mikey Anderson growing offensively

Anderson – I want to try and do it more. I think it’s situational, where there are certain times that it feels comfortable, and the time feels right to go. The way I play and the guys we’re out there against, I don’t want to try and force an offensive situation, because if you’re out there against those guys it can come back to bite you. Obviously over the last month or so, I’ve been trying to figure out what’s a good time to go, even if it’s just off of o-zone pressure and finding a spot to jump through a hole or finding a time to keep a play alive. It’s something I want to continue to keep watching film on, watching plays where I could have done it. I’m more of the defense first guy, so I feel like sometimes I pull back more than I should, but that’s something we’re trying to keep getting better at.

McLellan – It’s confidence, it’s giving yourself permission to do it and it’s knowing when to do it. Those things don’t happen in games one or two, you’re just surviving, but as you feel more and more comfortable and you understand situations better, you have to give yourself permission to go every now and then. There was a time when Mikey used to get the puck up high and he would just rim it back around the back of the net. We see him shooting the puck more now, he has more confidence. We see him diving into the play and maybe making a move and then shooting. Those are all skills that he’s worked on, which increases confidence, which allows him to do it. Time and patience.

McLellan on the development of Quinton Byfield
I expect him to finish his season making steps to become the player he can be. We don’t expect the finished product, we think it’s going to take some time, it always does with those players, but to see him take steps with the puck, without the puck, faceoff circle, physically, his overall game just continue to improve. I think there’s offense there, I think there’s a point-producing player, but for us to just evaluate him on that would be a mistake, we don’t do that with Arty. Arty’s game has really evolved and really developed and we won’t do that with Quinton, but I do think there’s a player there that eventually will create a lot of offense.

McLellan on playing games of consequence here in the second half
Last year was such a messed up season, so you can’t really go off of that, and the first year, our organization was in teardown mode really, at this time of the year. Now, we’ve done that, we’ve put together a lineup, we’re starting to grow our team, coaches are in place, structure is in place, players understand, we have an identity, I think all of that is progress. The next step in that, I talked about our American League team, getting them to be very competitive and getting them to go deep so the kids can experience playoffs. Us pushing, seeing where we can get to is our step here. All of that is progress. Let’s face it, if we were 30 points out right now, it would be ugly, it’s not where we needed to be. We’ve done some work to this point, let’s keep it going.

McLellan seeing the Ontario Reign make a playoff run
Over this break, we got to see the team play the Grand Rapids games, portions of it. There’s a lot of players playing down there, in fact we were just talking about it in the room, a big step for our organization up here would be to continue to push for a playoff spot, but a big step for our organization down there would be to win in the playoffs. They’re good enough to get there, I believe they’re going to get in, but can that team play in a seven-game series, experience ups and downs and win.

Everyone off today, before a Los Angeles – Edmonton organization battle begins. The Reign visit Bakersfield tomorrow evening and the Kings host the Oilers on Tuesday. Enjoy the day, Insiders. Talk soon.