Simon Gagne on LA’s loss to Montreal – ‘We kind of shut down’

With the injury to Mike Richards, Kings coach Terry Murray was forced to mix up his lines. Simon Gagne found himself on the top line, reunited with Anze Kopitar.

On Saturday afternoon, Gagne had four shots on goal in over 21 minutes of total ice time.

After LA lost 2-1 to the Habs, here’s what he had to say…

On the overall game – “Today was a tight game and you are hoping that you find a way to score and you just shoot the puck at the net. I thought we had a good first 20 minutes. We had a lot of pucks on net, a lot of shots. After that, the second period I thought was not very good from our side; we took a lot of penalties and gave them a chance to go on the power play. From that point on we found ourselves down 2-0. We got a goal late in the second and after that, in the third, we kind of shut down. They played really well defensively and for us we were okay the last 20 [minutes] but it was not enough to win or tie the game.”

On playing with Kopitar and Dustin Brown – “It was our first time together–me, Kopi [Anze Kopitar], and Brownie [Dustin Brown]. I know Brownie likes to go to the net so you try to create some chances and you try to go out there and get some pucks at the net and make some plays. I thought we had a couple good looks but you have to do it for 60 minutes.”

Coach Terry Murray agreed with part of Gagne’s assessment, adding this during his post game presser – “I thought we backed off in the second period. I didn’t think the intensity was quite the same as what it was in the first period. Then you get into the third [period] and it’s a 2-1 game. You’re trying to get things turned around but end up with six or seven shots in the period only. We left it too late and on top of that you take a bad penalty. When you’re on a power play in the third it’s a formula for losing games.”

More post game quotes: comments from coach Murray on Dustin Penner are up now (link)…and Jarret Stoll talks about the missed penalty late in the third period here.

The Mayor
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