Although today was a (well deserved) day off for the LA Kings, the team’s media department was kind enough to pull together a conference call with Jarret Stoll. Here are some of the highlights…
– On the overall game: “We were running around a bit and weren’t very composed with the puck when they were physical (early on). Getting though that first period and then regrouping and being down 1-0 that was – even after the second, being down 1-0 – that was huge for Quickie. I think we killed off five straight penalties, which took a lot out of our penalty killers for sure. Quickie came up with some huge saves to keep it 1-0. Second intermission we were fine. We knew we just had to score one goal. Darryl kept saying ‘Hey, we could be here all night.’ That’s the kind of mindset we took into the third, ‘We’re going to tie it up and if we need to be here until midnight or later, we’ll have to do that.’ That was our mindset. In the third period, you could see how aggressive we were on them and I think it just took a little bit of wind out of their sails when we tied it up and just kept pushing forward.”
– On LA winning the series: “It means a lot, for sure. Any team you play for you have to have pride in the organization and care about what the organization means and represents and the history behind it. You see highlights of Deadmarsh’s goal against Detroit all the time and how important that was at the time. But, us as a group – right now, right here – we want to make our own history and make our own storylines. We want to follow through with what we feel is a a really, really good team and don’t let this chance slip away. I’m 29 years old, but we all know and I’ve heard it before from older guys that I’ve played with – you never know when you’re going to get back to the playoffs and win a series or win two, three series and get a chance to play for the Stanley Cup. We have a lot of work to do ahead of us, yes. But, it was a big step for our organization. It was a big step for a lot of guys who have never won a series before. From our goaltender on out, (there was) a lot of gained experience throughout the series that will definitely help a lot in the future here.”
Much more to follow shortly.
UPDATE: Part two has now been posted, click here to read it now.
About John Hoven
Awesome interview! Thanks Mayor