Anze Kopitar and the Kings talk upcoming series with Blackhawks

Taking a lap around the Kings locker room, here’s a collection of quotes from Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and a few other players as they look ahead to the Western Conference Final against the Chicago Blackhawks…

Brown on if there is anybody on the Hawks he plans to key on, and possibly get under their skin?

“They have four or five top players that you have tobe hard on, I think that’s what it’s about this time of year. Being hard on the top guys, you see it in each series where we have guys we’re going to go after and it’s not going to be an individual thing but a collective thing. That’s our team from top to bottom is pretty good at being hard on their top players. The tricky thing with that you have to find a way to do it without taking penalties and getting yourself off your own game, and I think that’s one of those things we’ve been good at the last couple of years.”

Jordan Nolan on playing the Blackhawks:

“It’s going to be a fun series. It’s going to be fun to watch and intense. That buildings a lot of fun to play in so I’m sure that it’s going to be a fun one for the fans to watch.”

Jake Muzzin on playing the Blackhawks:

“I’m excited. I’m excited to play. They got a good squad and so do we. I’m looking forward to the challenge They have an exciting building to play in and Staples Center has always been rocking, so it’s going to be a fun series.”

Muzzin on if playing with Matt Greene has helped him:

“Yeah, he’s helped me out a lot. You know you got a steady guy back there. Well, everyone’s steady, but he’s got the leadership and the experience and you know he’s got your back. He’s been a great help for me and he’s a great leader and brings a lot of experience in the room so he’s a key guy on our team.”

Kopitar on the upcoming series vs. Chicago:

“We know what we’re getting, there’s no secret to them and they have some world class players that when you have the chance to try to be as physical as you can. The game plan doesn’t change a whole lot.”

Kopitar on if the Kings want to slow things down vs. Chicago, compared to playing a more up-tempo game:

“No, not really. Like I said, our game plan not going to change, we’re still going to try to play our game. Yeah, there’s some subtle adjustments, but we’ll do that as we go along. The majority of the game plan and the style of play that we should play, when we play it that makes us successful it’s not going to change…They don’t have lots of big forwards, but they do have speedy forwards, so that’s one of their strengths and they want to play to their strengths. At the same time we want to play to our strengths and see how everything turns out.”

Kopitar on Chicago’s strong penalty killing all year:

“Well they have lots of shot blockers back there and their goalies been playing well and those two are a pretty good combo for a successful penalty kill. We’re going to have to miss some legs and get it past Crawford.”

Kopitar on lining up against Jonathan Toews?

“It’s not going to be any different. I’ve been lined up against some pretty good players thus far and it’s not going to be any different. It’s going out there and preform to your best and leave it all out there, and see what happens.”

For additional Kings-Blackhawks coverage, be sure to check out the links below.

Sutter’s raw quotes – Kings v Blackhawks preview

Thursday practice – Matt Greene video interview re: 2013 WCF

Thursday practice – Colin Fraser on Voynov and the Blackhawks

Kings officially saying goodbye to two prospects this week

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