Anze Kopitar update from Friday’s Kings practice

Comments from Kings center Anze Kopitar…

On Dustin Brown hitting him with a puck:

“I guess the stick was not enough, so he had to shoot a puck in my face.”

On the severity of his injury:

“I’ve felt better before but with the situation, coming out with a couple stitches is not too bad.”

On his coming back into the game after injury: 

“I wanted to make sure that it was nothing serious and as soon as I found out, it was really a no-brainer to come back. I’m sure everybody else in this room would do the same.”

On if he noticed the crowds’ reaction to his return:

“I heard they got a little bit louder, yeah. It just shows how passionate they are and it’s nice to know that they’re always behind us.”

On Sutter joking that his modeling career is over due to his 20 lip stitches:

“I think that ship had sailed a long time ago.”

On when he got the stitches and if he lost any teeth:

“Right after it happened, in the locker room. I guess it was split up open pretty good. That’s why they needed to put them in right away. And no.”

On his feelings about the injury and his luck: 

“I did have my mouth guard in, so I’m sure that helped a little bit. And not quite sure but it might have hit the visor too a little bit, so I definitely took the best in the worst case.”

On his thoughts of finishing the game with two goals in less than 30 seconds:

“Yeah. It was one of those games where we weren’t as sharp as we wanted to be, but in the end we pulled it off. Sometimes that happens but we realize that we got to play better.”

On the Sharks’ desperation:

“Yeah, they’re going to be a desperate team there. They have a good record. Tough building to play into and we want to make sure we’re ready and we’re focused right off the get-go.”

 On what makes it so tough to play at HP Pavilion: 

“They always have a good start and the crowd gets into it pretty quick. We want to make sure we match their intensity and desperation and play with a lot of emotion.”

Comments from Jordan Nolan and Colin Fraser are up here and here.  We still have plenty more to come next hour.

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