Not a bad way to go into the break, winners of five of seven and with a big victory over your rivals.

“Any time you beat a team like that and a rival, its huge, Jason LaBarbera said. “Its a great way to go into the break. We can enjoy ourselves for the next couple of days.

Kopitar had his 19th goal of the season, one short of the 20 he had as a rookie.

“Were playing much better and I think everyone sees that, Kopitar said. “We arent giving up a lot of goals. We are limiting the chances we give up and were creating offense better than we did before.

Teddy Purcell got his first NHL point on a sweet, backhanded pass from the left boards to Derek Armstrong in front of the net for the second goal.

“Yeah, that was pretty nice,” Purcell said. “It was a great pass from Modry on the breakout. We had a 2-on-1 and it was a good job by Army letting me know I had some time there and he was going to net. I just made a pass and he made a nice goal.”

Matt Moulson also had a point, helping to set up Alexander Frolov for the third goal of the game — the one that knocked out Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

“We really like the contributions of these young guys that have come in, Marc Crawford said. “I think our players are getting more excited to have youth in our group.

Crawford said Purcell and Moulson are likely to stay with the team for the eight-game road trip that follows the break.

“Right now we have so many injuries that I dont think it’s a question,” Crawford said. “It doesnt look like Cammalleri will be back immediately. It doesnt look like Nagy will even go on the trip. Willsie is probably the closest but I think he still may be a little bit away. So I suspect those guys will continue on with us. I dont know if they will go back and play some games for the Monarchs here now during the break. They have played well. I thought their contribution ton was good on the scoreboard but particularly good just overall.”

I caught Nagy coming out of the locker room and asked him about the injury. He said it occurred during the game at Calgary and he felt a twinge immediately then woke up the next day with it extremely sore.

“I thought it would be better the last four or five days but it’s not getting better so I’m staying here,” Nagy said. “Hopefully the next couple of days it will be much better because it’s getting frustrating. It’s like a detachment of a nerve. There’s a burning that goes all the way to my left side. I’ve never felt anything like it before. I had knee surgery and that didn’t bother me like this one.”

Click the continuation to read Crawford’s full post-game quotes.

“We were strong on loose pucks and it looked like we wanted the puck tonight. We got a contribution from throughout the lineup. When you get that type of contribution and everybody digs in, you end up having a good game — and that was a good game for us.

“I thought the two young guys in our lineup really contributed well. I thought on both plays by Moulson and Armstrong on the one pass to Frolov there was great puck movement, great cycling, tremendous awareness of ice and who was open. It was a great display of passing. And that was a big-time pass Teddy Purcell made on the pass across the ice on his backhand flat on his stick to land flat so Armstrong could put it into the cage. When you get contributions like that from young guys coming up and showing they want be part of future of the Kings, then thats really exciting.

“I thought the penalty kill was exceptional tonight. All our defensemen pitched in tonight. LaBarbera made some saves. I thought we got a lot of blocks from peop tonight. The upfront penalty kill, particularly Giuliano, Handzus, Preissing, Brown, Kopitar and O’Sullivan were very big for us tonight. We limited the chances for the Getzlaf line. Especially for as hot as they have been recently, to shut them down is really gratifying for our team. And also to shut down the good Anaheim power play was something.

“We did all the things we set out to do. We wanted to win the special teams battle and we scored the power play goal. They didnt get any. O-for night on the penatly kill and I thought we did a good job of playing physical, being confrontational and not retaliating to the Anaheim penalties.”

On the defense: “It was a very good effort. Blake and Johnson both did a great job. They had the matchup of Getzlaf and Perry. Perry had some good chances in the second period but they really did keep them in check and at bay. I thought, on other side, the contributions of the Armstrong line tonight with Moulson and Frolov was extremely good. Everyone else dug in and did what they had to do and made some timely plays to score the goals.

“I’ve said we played a lot better from Christmas on. I think we’re 8-5 or 8-6 since that time and we probably should be better than that because we had some losses we had no business losing. That happens. Hopefully we have lots of confidence going out on the road.

“We really like the contributions of these young guys that have come in. I think our players are getting more excited to have youth in our group. Theyre playing hard. Tonight was a gutsy effort from everybody. We’re going to need that type of effort on the road. We can enjoy the break now for a couple days. Even though we’re in last place our guys need a break as well, if nothing more than just to stop hearing the voices of coaches especially me.

“Right now we have so many injuries that I dont think it’s a question,” Crawford said. “It doesnt look like Cammalleri will be back immediately. It doesnt look like Nagy will even go on the trip. Willsie is probably the closest but I think he still may be a little bit away. So I suspect those guys will continue on with us. I dont know if they will go back and play some games for the Monarchs here now during the break. They have played well. I thought their contribution ton was good on the scoreboard but particularly good just overall.”