Comments from a the Q&A with center Jarret Stoll following the Kings’ pre-game skate at Staples Center earlier today…
Q. You’ve been part of a Cup final in a Canadian city, the mayhem that ensues with that. Now you’re part of it in a market like this. You don’t seem to be a team that reads its press clippings. Is it easier to get away from it than in Canada?
STOLL: Yeah, you can still go to the mall or go for lunch. But people are still fired up. They notice the job you’re doing, appreciate the job you’re doing. You can get away with it a little bit out here where we live. But the city’s fired up, don’t get me wrong. We’re excited to play in front of them.
Q. We all talk about the records you’ve broken, the ones you’re approaching. Are you aware of the numbers, the significance of them?
STOLL: Not really. We don’t talk about it in there, to be honest. Ask our coach that question, I’m sure you’ll get the answer.
Q. Somebody did yesterday. It didn’t go well.
STOLL: You know better than I would. You spend a lot of time with him (laughter). But, yeah, we don’t talk about it. We talk about our game, what we
need to bring, how we need to play.
Q. Darryl says on game day, it’s all game day. He’s instilled it’s really ‘go’ time.
STOLL: Yeah, you come up, come to the rink in the morning, day one when he got here, the preparation, the mindset, how we need to be, where our attitude and heads need to be on game day when he came in. That was a big change for some guys. Not to say we weren’t prepared at all, but it just made us that much more of a prepared team throughout. We were ready to start games. We had good first periods. We got the first goal maybe a little bit more than we used to. It’s a mindset. It’s a professional attitude you have to have.
For more interviews with the LA Kings, please see the ‘Recent Articles’ section near the top right corner of this page.
Thank you for some non video interviews! Much easier to sneak on my iPhone during work!
Even Stolly knows the coach is tight with The Mayor. Good stuff.