Jeff Carter continues to lead the Kings in goals after recording a natural hat-trick on Monday night vs. Nashville. In his career, the 6-foot-4 forward now has 10 goals in 14 career games against the Predators. After his big night, here’s what he had to say back in the locker room…
– On it being hard for a team to score five goals on Nashville: “I guess we caught them on the right night. I don’t know what they were doing out here, but you know, we were worked hard. There was a lot of great plays on all the goals. But, yeah, they don’t give up too many. So it was a good night for us.”
– On feeling more comfortable in LA this season: “It’s been good. I kind of feel like everything is back to normal now. I was out here all lockout hanging out with probably ten guys or whatever. So it was nice to kind of, just get out, get settled, and relax a little bit. I’m comfortable here now, it’s great. I feel like I’m in a comfortable position on a great team, and (we need to) keep it going.”
– On if his definition of ‘normal’ involves scoring goals nearly every night: “That’s what I’m here for I guess, to put the puck in the net. It’s kind of settled down. Like you said, with injuries, with trades, it just kind of feel like everything is in place now; it’s good.”
– On focusing on getting pucks and traffic to the net tonight: “It was something we talked about. I don’t know if it really happened until the third period, (as) we had six shots after two, or something like that. It took a little while to get it going, but we showed that when we actually do it; good things happen. We did a good job of just kind of wearing them down through the first 40 (minutes).”
– On Dwight King‘s goal: “It was nice to see Kinger get one. He’s been working hard to get on the board, and you know that line did a lot of good things tonight.”
– On Slava Voynov being a better player than he was last year: “He has a lot more confidence for sure. He’s obviously been great all year. You can see the confidence that he got from playing in the minors there during the lockout. Just skating the puck and making plays. Holding onto the puck, looking guys off, and he’s pretty good.”
– On the Kings’ power play: “We switched things up a little bit, and kind of went back to just lines. We’ve worked on it a lot. Kopi’s line really moves it around well. They’ve had a couple of nice ones there in the last couple games. We just gotta keep at it. It doesn’t matter if it’s nice or a greasy one, they all count.”
– On his first goal being greasy: “Yeah, that was real ugly. I was trying to pass it backdoor there. That’s probably why I have two assists all year.”
– On the overall game: “It was a big game for us. Last game in Vancouver there, we didn’t have our best effort. We came out and I don’t think we started the game particularly well, but we stuck with it, and we played some pretty good hockey in the third period.”
– On only having six shots the first two periods: “They do a great job of blocking. Probably would have a lot more shots if we got pucks past their D and to the net. But, to our credit, we didn’t get frustrated and stuck with it. It’s pretty easy to get frustrated when they’re stepping in front of everything.”
– On the difference in the play of the Kings in the third period: “We had a little more speed to our game. We were getting on pucks in their end, and playing physical. It was opening up holes for us.”
– On what lead to the break-away: “I was just playing the middle there, and was able to get a stick on it. A good guess on where he was going. That was another lucky one, because Weber got my arm before I shot it.”
– On the significance of the hat trick, personally: “It’s nice. It’s always fun. Some big goals for the team. Give us a little bit of cushion there. You know, it’s good.”
– On the victory tonight creating momentum for Tuesday night: “Definitely. It’s another team that plays defense, doesn’t give up a lot. It’s gonna be probably a real similar game to tonight.”
– On how big this huge stretch of games in March will be: “It’s a huge part of the season for us. I don’t know if we’re back in (the playoffs) now or not, but we’re right on the bubble. We have a good stretch of games coming up for us now, and we’ll have to take advantage of it.”
– On being surprised at a 5-1 score given the play in the first two periods: “We knew that’s how they play. They block a lot of shots. They put their D in front of pucks, and they don’t give a lot. You have to work for it, and we stuck with it. It took 40 minutes before we got through to them, but I think our forwards did a good job of wearing them down in the first 40, and we took advantage of it at the end there.”
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Keep up the snipin’ Carts!