Marc Crawford was asked today about the Kings’ penalty-killing unit, which has killed all seven of opponents’ power-play chances over the last two games. Crawford said:

“We’ve done a good job. It starts with Jason. Jason has made good saves on the penalty kill. We’ve concentrated a lot more on it. I think we’re doing a better job on entries and we’re doing a better job on clears. Penalty killing is very much an experience-based skill. Handzus has done a good job for us there. O’Sullivan is getting more experience, as is Brown. We brought in Klemm, and he’s a guy who can help us out. We’ve used Preissing up front a little bit more, and those defensemen have a pretty good knowledge of the positioning and sticks and closing down. It’s hard work, the penalty kill, but it pays dividends. We’ve been better. We’ve won the special-teams battle in the last two (games). It helped us to win the game in San Jose and it put us in position to win the game yesterday. That’s the type of team that we have. With the talent base we have, we won’t overwhelm teams and have the type of depth in scoring that maybe you’ll see our team have as we continue to grow. And so special teams do become important. They put you in position to be pretty good.”

Crawford was also asked, in a general sense, about taking positives from the last two games. He said:

“We played two of the top teams in our division and we played them extremely well. We were in a position yesterday to get something out of the game. We didn’t get anything out of the game and obviously that’s not what you want, but if you want to look at the glass being half-full, we played a very spirited game. We played well and we were right there. It just shows us, as a coaching staff, and shows the players that if they grab that extra three or four percent, or if they make one more good-habit play, it might be the difference in the game going our way. The old adage is, `You have to get close before you get better.’ We’re close right now. The way to get better is to keep emphasizing work, keep emphasizing team and do the things that allow you to keep your work ethic high and your team focused at a high level.”