Some comments from forward Justin Williams, who has arguably been the Kings’ best player through three games in their first-round series with the St. Louis Blues…
– On why he’s been even better than normal in the series: “It’s playoff time. This is my favorite time of year. That’s when my juices get going a little bit more. I may be starting to talk a little more than I usually do, get in guys faces. This is just a fun time of year. This is what hockey players love to do – play in in the playoffs, play in important games. I love moving on. I love winning.”
– On if he saw a different demeanor from Jonathan Quick in Game 3: “I don’t think so. Obviously that’s inane for him to say that any of those losses were on him. But that’s what you want as a goaltender. You want a goaltender that’s going to battle for you. You want a guy who wants to stop every puck that comes toward him. That’s what he does, and in this series we’re going to need him to be at his best, because goals seem to be at a premium.”
– On the overall performance in Game 3: “I still didn’t think we played a great third period. We didn’t let them score which is great, but we needed to learn from what we did in the previous game, was surrender a goal, and then surrender another goal. We got the win, we’re happy, we gotta clean a few things up, but late in the game you’re trying to keep the puck out of your net. It’s just a desperation play. Try to preserve the shutout.”
– On what he thinks of the low scoring games so far: “I think it’s great, because you can’t take a shift off. If you take a shift off it could be the difference in the game. Your mind needs to be ready every single time you get on that ice, because little plays turn into big plays in series’ like this. We had big plays out of our goaltender.”
– On the importance of winning Game 3: “It’s no secret that not many teams have come back from three-nothing deficits. Plain and simple. That’s cut and dry. This is obviously the first of four, but this is a game that we needed to have. And game four is going to be the same. We don’t want to be going back there down three-one. We want to put a little bit of pressure on them. Win a game, see what happens.”
– On the mood being light at Saturday’s Game 3 morning skate, despite trailing 2-0 in the series: “We’ve had guys that have been through a lot. We’ve been through a lot together. Which helps, so we knew we needed it. We knew that maybe the first goal was going to win the game. It did. And as a result, we’re not where we want to be yet, but it was a good win.”
– On if it was good to see Slava Voynov score on Saturday: “It’s good to see anybody get one at this point.”
– On it being the type of greasy goal they needed to get: “That’s exactly what it was. Bangs, whacks, I’m amazed he got it through all the maze of bodies that were in front of the net. Obviously a big goal for our hockey club.”
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