Kings offday quotes 5/19

Interviews with:

COACH DARRYL SUTTER
DWIGHT KING
DUSTIN BROWN
ANZE KOPITAR
DREW DOUGHTY

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Sutter.

Q. Your team is one win away from a stage a lot of your players have
never been at. How do you keep their eye on the ball tomorrow?
COACH SUTTER: Try to harp on the details to them. Hopefully they
have the preparation skills to do that.

Q. Will Fraser go back in?
COACH SUTTER: Didn’t talk about Fraser the other day because it was
a personal issue and he wasn’t hurt, wasn’t what you would call a healthy
scrap.
Unless Dave (Tippett) is coming up here and telling you who they’re
playing, I’m not telling you who we’re playing.

Q. What do you expect from a team down 3-0?
COACH SUTTER: Same thing we saw last game. No difference when
you’re down in the series, right? You’re going to get the same thing we
got in the first period last game, for sure. I mean, that’s logical,
right?
If I was those guys, I’d be doing the same thing. So expect that.

Q. What was the key that first period for both you and Phoenix?
COACH SUTTER: I think they’re really good in the neutral zone and we
weren’t as good.

Q. What about the plans for tomorrow morning? Do you have a sense
of how that’s going to play out?
COACH SUTTER: We’ve done it once already. The routine is there. So
we’ve done it once, do it again.

Q. Figured out how to dodge the bicycle race?
COACH SUTTER: It’s only a mile walk downhill (laughter). Really, it
is, right? I’ve done that. It’s actually a little more than a mile. How
many blocks is that, like 12 blocks or something? All that is blocked off.

Q. Are you excited about tomorrow or cautious?
COACH SUTTER: I think you have to be able to channel all that
because if you don’t, it doesn’t work, right? I mean, there has to be
discipline and control. I’m not a rocket scientist, and they are people.
So you control it.
It’s a team thing. It’s not an individual thing.

Q. What is your take on all the attention? Is L.A. a hockey team
now?
COACH SUTTER: Hockey team? Black and white, they’re a team.

Q. A hockey city?
COACH SUTTER: I guess I live in Manhattan Beach, and go to L.A. for
the games. Manhattan Beach is a nice, quiet town (smiling).

Q. For particularly your young guys, young players, do you like that
they seem to be really relishing this?
COACH SUTTER: The biggest thing, everybody was caught up in the team
staying downtown, the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You know what, experience is
experience. It’s awesome for the young guys. They haven’t had it. Most
of them hadn’t even won a playoff game.
Why not experience the experience, right? Same thing you’re doing.
Experience the experience, right? It’s the best part of it. Why shouldn’t
they be able to do that? That’s the only way you get it. Otherwise you go
watch another team play, right? That’s the best part of it.
Go to the other side, talk to Phoenix. It’s an awesome experience
for them. Why wouldn’t you want that?

Q. Not letting it overtake them?
COACH SUTTER: I think there’s times it certainly has, right? I
mean, somebody just asked about first period last game. If we would have
lost that game, you’d be asking, that we didn’t handle it very well.
There’s a fine line between winning and losing. What’s the difference?
Not very much.

Q. What about for Darryl Sutter eight years ago, knocking at the
door with the Flames. Getting a little giddy?
COACH SUTTER: No. Everybody makes a big deal of that. Quite
honestly, had better teams after that and we lost in the first round, so…
You know what, that’s how close it is.

Q. Three months since the Carter trade, has he been easier to
integrate into the team because he had relationships with other guys that
were already here?
COACH SUTTER: No.

Q. Has he integrated?
COACH SUTTER: Yes. What does ‘integrated’ mean?

Q. I was just following up on his question.
COACH SUTTER: Why would he be harder than anybody else? You know,
65% of the players are Canadian. Lots are from Ontario. He’s from
Ontario. He’s played two positions. He’s young. Our team is young.
Why would it be hard to integrate? I mean, he’s a good player, so…

Q. Jordan said his dad is in town. Have you had a chance to talk
with his dad at all?
COACH SUTTER: Jordan?

Q. Nolan.
COACH SUTTER: No.

Q. I asked the players in general if they have any appreciation for
what the Coyotes have had to go through in terms of ownership. they said,
‘No, we’re worried about ourselves.’ Do you have any appreciation for
them, for their journey here?
COACH SUTTER: You know what, I appreciate, because I understand
their coaches, who they are, what they do, right? Jimmy Playfair and I
have been together in lots of situations. I know some of the guys on their
team, so…
It’s a good place to live, obviously. It’s a good hockey team.
That’s kind of what everybody wants.
Heck, I went to San Jose when they were a 60-some-point team. I went
to Calgary when there were 8,000 or 9,000 people watching games. If you
get a good team, generally you get a chance for people to watch. It would
be nice to keep that team in the league. That’s the way everybody looks at
it. You guys, too. You want to go to Phoenix. We all do.

Q. Westgate is nice?
COACH SUTTER: Absolutely. Good building, good fans. When you have
a good team, they want to come and watch. We’ve all seen it. That’s what
you want the most, for sure.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Questions for Dwight King.

Q. Why has this team been able to be so focused?
DWIGHT KING: I think we just kind of reset ourselves. Obviously
after big wins and big efforts, people come back to the rink, they enjoy it
for the evening it was. When they come back here, refocus, go to practice,
touch on some issues that we needed to work on, carry it into our next
games.
It’s been going pretty well. Our top players have been playing great
for us. That’s what you need, too.

Q. Dustin talked about it the other day, you say you haven’t played
your best game yet, you haven’t shown your best.
DWIGHT KING: Yeah.

Q. Is that fact? Are you using it as motivation?
DWIGHT KING: That’s definitely fact. Obviously, if you watched last
game, there were times when we were sloppy. We’re still working to get
that full 60-minute effort. We’re getting closer. Working to get there
eventually.
We’re going to focus upon Sunday, hopefully get a little closer,
bring a better effort from the start.

Q. What has the transition from the minors been like for you?
DWIGHT KING: Definitely taking it all in. Obviously it’s a very big
city here and they’re very passionate about their sports teams. Good to
see we’re all in the playoffs. It’s a bonus.
Obviously with us having success, it makes it that much better. Kind
of living the dream right now, soaking it all in.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Questions for Dustin Brown.

Q. Hard not to look ahead?
DUSTIN BROWN: You know what, at this point of the year, I mean,
you’re looking. Everyone talks about getting to the Stanley Cup Final.
But I think as players, especially for myself, I can only speak really for
myself, playing in that game tomorrow night is pretty fun, as well. It’s
one of the things, you really have to enjoy the journey.
We’re one game away from, you know, the Cup Final. But, again, it’s
one game we have to win. Again, like I said, these games that we’re
playing in, it’s not like they’re aren’t fun to play in.

Q. A lot of pride in the other team. No one likes to get swept.
What do you expect from them?
DUSTIN BROWN: I’ve said this about Phoenix not only this year, but
the last few years, they’re a pretty tight, resilient group. Considering
they’re the Pacific Division champs this year, battled through a lot of
things. I don’t know if they’ve been this far in a hole, but they’ve
showed character all year. It’s going to be no different tomorrow night.
I think, like you said, they’re a practical group. They’re going to
come out with everything they got.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Questions for Anze Kopitar.

Q. (No microphone.)
ANZE KOPITAR: We all know what’s at stake. It’s just a matter of getting
focused, what you got to do at that moment. Right now it’s getting ready
for tomorrow. Tomorrow is getting ready for the game. During the game,
you got to play the shifts. We’ll see the outcome in two, three hours.
We’ll go from there.

Q. (No microphone.)
ANZE KOPITAR: That’s what you got to do in playoffs. You know, once
you get caught looking ahead, or back, you can get caught and just start
daydreaming. That’s obviously not very good.

Q. For guys like you that haven’t gone through this, is it
surprising, or is it a by-product of some of the guys that have been
through it?
ANZE KOPITAR: Yeah, having some experience in this room, obviously I
don’t have it myself, not a whole lot of guys have it, but having some guys
that have been there, they’ve been to these types of situations. I mean,
it helps a lot.
You know, you talk to them once in a while. But then, you know, I
guess you kind of catch yourself doing the same thing. After that you just
do whatever’s working for you.

Q. Have you thought about what the rink is going to be like
tomorrow?
ANZE KOPITAR: I think it’s going to be pretty good. Not that it
hasn’t been in the past, too. I think the loudest I heard Staples Center
was the Game 4 against St. Louis. Those last couple minutes were pretty
electric. Even two days ago it was pretty fun.
I don’t doubt it’s not going to be any different tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Questions for Drew Doughty.

Q. Drew, you finished off the Blues when you had a chance. What’s
the difference in terms of focus in trying to finish it off?
DREW DOUGHTY: We’re trying to focus the same way we did in those
other games. We need to come out there as if we’re down a couple games in
the series. We know that they’re going to play their best game. We need
our best game, too. It’s going to be the toughest one for us. They’re
going to come out hard in the first five minutes, try to push us away. We
have to make sure it’s our best game in the series.

Q. What’s it like trying not to think ahead?
DREW DOUGHTY: It’s tough not to think ahead. But at the same time,
it’s easy because, you know, all you’re thinking about is that next game.
We know we still got a lot of work to do. We’re not even close to being
there yet. Going to the next game, we’re so excited to hopefully finish it
off in front of our home fans.

Q. Drew, how much of your success is playing in the third period?
DREW DOUGHTY: It’s been huge. There’s times we’re up 2-1, we got
that third goal with 10 minutes left to kind of push the other team out.
At the same time instead of sitting back and just holding on to the lead,
we’re still pushing forward, still making those plays to get the puck in
deep, get in hard on the forecheck. That’s why we’re holding on to those
leads.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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