February 12: Postgame quotes

Head coach Mike Stothers, on the two quick goals for Bakersfield:
They’re the difference in the game. It’s uncharacteristic of us to give up a goal late in a period. Just misreads. I don’t know if we let up because we thought it was offside [on the Khaira goal], but still no excuse, you’ve got to play through it. … Was it offside? I don’t think so.

Stothers, on Ehrhoff’s play, his attitude and any message to him before debut:
What am I going to say to him? The guy’s played a lot of years in the NHL. He came down with a great attitude. Was happy and eager to be here with the guys. There was no woe is me type of thing and I think that shows what quality of person he is. I don’t know him as well as I know some of the other guys but everything I’ve heard from the coaching staff up in LA is he’s a great person, terrific family man and works hard on the ice, after practice in the gym, takes good care of himself. That’s the type of people we want to have here. He’s going to make the most of it. I’m sure deep down inside he wants to go back up to the Kings or somewhere else in the NHL. But, as you guys all know, this is not a bad place to be. If you’ve got to play hockey, being in Ontario, it’s a pretty good spot to be. We’ll try to make it fun for him.

Stothers, on Mersch sticking up for Dowd in physical third period:
That’s what good teammates do for each other.

Stothers, on the Samuels-Thomas-Crescenzi-Zykov line and changing others:
I’ve liked them. J on the left and Cres in the middle and Augey on the right was terrific just because of the size, it’s a heavy line. Z sat out the last couple games so you’re not just going to throw him up with Dowder and Mersch. Augs has been playing so well, he deserves to be up there. You kind of tinker with it and there’s some familiarity there with Cres and J and Z. It was good. They’ve been really good. They’re playing a heavy game and I like the way they play down low and take pucks to the net. I’m not sure why they don’t draw more penalties because it sure looks like they’re being impeded somewhat. But, as you can see, I’m not wearing stripes.

Stothers, on missed opportunities:
Last two games we’ve had 91 shots. And we’ve had some great scoring opportunities. That one that we should have had on the power play [by Sean Backman], that was an unbelievable save. We have the goalie out, we score, we have the goalie out and the puck hits [Nilsson]. He didn’t even know where it was, but that’s part of being a good goalie. Use your size, be big, even when you don’t see it. Make yourself big in net and he did. The guy the other night in San Jose was real good. You’re going to run into that. Ninety-one shots and I think we’re averaging 21 shots against, so we’re still doing some good things it’s just not happening.

Stothers, on Zykov after being a healthy scratch the last three:
I liked Z’s game. He’s back in after sitting out but he actually did what I was looking for him to do. There was a play late in the second period where he got the puck out of the zone. It was a matter of you get it, if you can make a play, you make a play, if not, chip it out and make sure it gets out. And some of those things have been kind of hurting him in the fact that there’s that trust factor. Can we put him out in certain situations or in certain time periods of a period? It’s a process for him to learn and I was very happy with him and very proud of him … take what we’re offering you, apply it, make yourself a better player, a reliable player. So, that was good.

Stothers, on Houser’s play and Reign’s struggles scoring:
I thought Doogie did a good job. He did fine. Again, it’s a tough situation. He’s coming in and hadn’t played in a while and he’s getting his feet wet and there’s some stretches there where he doesn’t see a lot of activity and all of a sudden there’s some action. We’ve got to find a way to get some of the pucks that we’re shooting by their goalie. We’ve had this situation come up at times during the season earlier and we’ve managed to get through it and we’ll get through this one, too.

Stothers, on if he had heard of a call-up to the Kings after Gaborik’s injury:
Nope. I did hear that he got hurt though. We watch the games when we can. As of right now there’s nothing going on. I’m sure with the time change … but, they also had two healthy forwards sitting out tonight so it’s not like they’re down on numbers. But I’m sure at some point we’ll hear something. You might even know before me, you guys and your Twitters and everything else that go on.

Stothers, on Budaj’s recall, win vs. Rangers and Gravel’s first NHL games:
I was ecstatic. It was awesome. It was just awesome. It’s a feel-good weekend really. Not that we didn’t win but you see Gravs and he gets to go again, so obviously they must have been happy with his game. He gets a second game and he looked solid again to me today in the parts I was able to see. I just think Budes sitting up on The Rock, which is St. John’s, Newfoundland, for you guys that aren’t Canadians. Know about The Rock. And couldn’t buy a win. His family’s in Colorado and he’s there by himself. It’s crazy. You just persevere. You keep plugging away. He just works so hard. How do you not feel happy for him, how do you not feel good? I think it’s great for everybody. It’s unbelievable, good feeling. That’s the best part of the job, seeing guys go up and play in the NHL. It’s unbelievable. It’s awesome.

Michael Mersch, on the two goals in 20 seconds:
The second one was kind of a fluke, I was trying to make a good play trying to stop the pass from coming back across because I knew that was the only play he had and I thought I had my stick all the way on the ice but it just went right under my knob, right where my fingers grip the stick and it went right under and slid into the net which was a tough play. Second period with one second left, it’s also tough. When you’re out for two goals against and you’ve got no points and you’re on the first line you’re going to lose. … Gotta score goals and put points on the board and not get scored on. Their top line beat us tonight 5-on-5 so tip your caps to them because they played a good game.

Mersch, on what the team can do differently:
I could probably get more shots on goal. Maybe I had two or three tonight. I’m usually in the 7-8 range, I try to be at least, that’s what I aim for. Also, I’m trying to make a few more plays and it’s been working with Backs the last couple games. Augey was great tonight, it’s great playing with him too. He’s a heavy body. I thought he played really well tonight. We’re doing a lot of good things, Stutts said that. We’re just going to keep doing the same things we’re doing but clean up a few things like the goals at the end of the period and beginning of the period, that comes back to haunt you and it did tonight.

Mersch, on his penalties late and clashing with Matt Ford:
Well, first of all, I work out with Ford in the summer. For me personally, I have a competitive edge where if you know someone, you’re close with them, you get to know them pretty well, you always want to beat them. You want to have that upper hand. I saw my teammate, Dowder, he was kind of pinned in there. Wanted to go in there and help. When you mix things up it maybe gets them off their game or changes something up in the game. That’s all it was.

Mersch, on roommate Kevin Gravel’s call-up to the Kings:
I was pumped. Me and him were sitting having breakfast in, where were we, San Jose and we were having a coffee and some oatmeal from Starbucks trying to save a few bucks, a few dollars of per diem. Now he’s going up and making the big money so that’s funny. I don’t know if any of us were expecting it. I didn’t really know but I saw something on Twitter and then I showed it to him. I think he saw it but didn’t want to tell me about it earlier. I’m just as happy as he is. He’s a great player. I don’t know if you guys watched him play last year, he was kind of in the rotation with the sixth D last year. There were three guys splitting all the way till March and he kind of took it over and played really well in the playoffs and earned an NHL contract this year, is great from there. He’s a great teammate. He’s a good guy who plays hard and it’s good when you see someone who works really hard get that opportunity.

Nic Dowd, on the two goals in 20 seconds:
That killed. You got the guys you want on the ice and we give up a goal with one second left in a game that we were playing pretty well in. I think we would have carried momentum into the third. Then we start the third off where we have a line out there that’s responsible, can make plays in both ends. Unlucky bounce, goes off Merschy’s stick and in the net, otherwise it goes three or four feet wide. He was doing the right thing it just happened to take a bad bounce. We had 20 minutes to come back from that so it’s not like it was something that couldn’t be overcome. It can’t happen, basically.

Dowd, on his goal:
Ehrhoff walked off the wall, took a nice shot, I just was in the high slot curling the net and stuck my stick out and it barely got a piece of it.

Dowd, on the high SOG total both tonight and vs. San Jose:
I think we’re doing some good stuff, 52 shots in the previous game, 40 tonight, maybe 41. But you’ve got to have guys that score goals. It’s not enough to have 50 or 40 shots, you’ve got to bear down. We have four goals on 91 shots. That’s not enough. You’ve got to have guys score goals. Your power play has to kick one in. I think Houser’s been playing well for short notice so I think’s on the forwards to get that puck to the back of the net.

Christian Ehrhoff, on Khaira’s goal late and being frustrated at officials afterwards:
Looked to me like it was offside. They didn’t call it. I’m not sure, I haven’t seen the video. It is what it is, just was upset at that moment.

Ehrhoff, on his play overall in Reign debut:
I thought I played pretty well. Obviously I haven’t played that much in a while. It was something different, something I need to get used to it. But looking forward to tomorrow night and hopefully we can bounce back and get a W tomorrow.

Ehrhoff, on what the coaches said to him going in:
No special message, just go out there and have fun. This is a great group of guys and I’m here to enjoy it and help out the younger guys.

Ehrhoff, on how his legs felt after first two periods:
They got a little more tired throughout the game. Like I said, it’s been a while since I’ve played that much and I had a couple flights to the East Coast and back, hopefully the legs are going to feel a little bit better.

Ehrhoff, on if there was a message from Lombardi or the Kings:
That’s something you should ask Dean. They talked to me but that’s not for me to share.

Ehrhoff, on playing with Forbort and getting into a rhythm:
I played with Forby up in LA a few times so I kind of knew what to expect from him and I thought it went pretty good from the start.