Prior to Monday’s game, Phoenix coach Dave Tippett and captain Shane Doan talked about the importance of staying out of the penalty box against the Kings. However, they were whistled for seven penalties in the game and two power play goals by the Kings had them down 2-0 and they never fully recovered – as Jonathan Quick put it, LA ‘smelled blood in the water.’
Here’s what was being said back in the Phoenix locker room following their 4-0 loss at Staples Center…
Doan on the overall game: “Obviously we got to be better. We have to get to the net and find a goal just bounce in and somehow find a way to generate some more offense. We thought we had some opportunities in the second and the third, we just didn’t bury them. We had a power play that I missed the net on a one-timer. You miss an opportunity like that, that’s a mistake. We can’t have those. I made it. It’s been happening too often. “
More Doan: “You have to create your own luck; create your opportunities. Obviously it would be nice to get a lucky one, but you have to create that and we’ve had bounces go against us and bounces go for us. We have to find one right now.”
Raffi Torres on the overall game: “We are getting some opportunities. We got to bear down around the net. You have to give their goalie some credit. He played pretty solid and didn’t give us much. We got to do a better job of getting to him and getting pucks to the net. We have to keep battling; It’s going to come. We have to capitalize on chances. I think I had a couple of good chances there. You just have to finish especially with the way things are going the way they are.”
More Torres: “For tomorrow we have to stay out of the box. We took three offensive penalties. You can’t give a team like that much time. They have a lot of fire power up there and they showed it tonight. They played well all around. Overall we need to be better and worry about what we are doing. We have to keep getting pucks to the net. Hopefully we can capitalize on the power play. We just have to keep our heads up here and have a pretty desperate game tomorrow.”
Coach Tippett on the overall game: “We looked more desperate around the net. There was lots of push there. We got ourselves into some trouble taking a lot of penalties. They capitalized on it and that changed the outlook on the game. I’m more upset at giving them an early lead on power plays than our chances not going in. We just got to get some luck. There’s no time to get down now; we have to keep pushing forward and find some people to get the job done for us.”
More Tippett: “We need some puck luck around the net. We are looking for any kind of break in front of the net. There’s two ways to score: one is hard around the net or make a good skilled play. We didn’t have enough skilled plays so we are looking for something around the net.”
Tippett on pulling Mike Smith, whether it was about his play or what was in front of the net: “A little of both. We have to come back tomorrow and be strong. We will figure out who goes tomorrow night. We are just trying to change momentum now.”
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A game against the Yotes and Doan didn’t score? Amazing