Kings captain Dustin Brown received a five-minute major penalty for kneeing and was tossed from LA’s game vs. San Jose on Tuesday night, but that didn’t stop Darryl Sutter’s team from another dominate performance against the Sharks on home ice. Goals from snipers Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli helped fuel a 4-1 victory. Of course, the big story was in net though. Rookie goaltender Martin Jones is now a perfect 7-0 in his NHL career after stopping 31 of 32 shots.
After the final buzzer, here’s what was being said in both locker rooms…
Darryl Sutter on the team’s momentum from killing the major penalty:
“We start the second period four-on-four and then we are short three minutes so against teams that are so closely matched that’s probably the difference in the game.”
Sutter on the team’s confidence:
“I don’t think our team ever really struggles with confidence. It does not really matter what the score is, I don’t think confidence is an issue for our team.”
Martin Jones on tonight’s game:
“They had some chances on the power play and good teams are going to do that. I thought five-on-five we were really strong tonight. We carried a lot of the play going in to the third period with a two-goal lead. That’s not easy to do, but the guys played great. It was a big win for us.”
Jones on killing the major penalty:
“It was an important time of the game. Our penalty killers have been doing an awesome job of blocking shots and getting in lanes so I can’t say enough about that. It really helps myself out.”
Tyler Toffoli on tonight’s game:
“We came out strong in the first period and we had a big kill to start the second period and that kind of changed the game for us. We kept putting pressure, lots of shots on net and we got just got the lead and kept playing with it.”
Toffoli on Dwight King’s goal:
“It was incredible. That pass was unbelievable [to Carter]. I think only Kopitar can make that play in here so that’s a pretty unbelievable pass. He had an incredible game in going to the net and scoring dirty goals.”
Todd McLellan on Niemi’s play:
“I think Niemi is like some others on our team, some go-to guys that have to step up. He knows that, we know it, his teammates know it. But we are talking about one individual who wears the [goalie] pads. There are some others who didn’t have a very good night. The focus can’t just go on him.”
Joe Thornton on tonight’s game:
“We had some good tries. I thought the score didn’t indicate the way the game kind of went but all that matters is that they got the two points and we didn’t. I didn’t think it was a 4-1 game to be honest with you.”
Thornton on the Sharks’ power play:
“We had some good cracks but not enough. You know it’s a work in progress and can only get better.”
Joe Pavelski on tonight’s game:
“There were a few plays early in the game when the score was still 2-0 or 1-0 where we had chances to get right back into the game and we didn’t take advantage.”
Pavelski on the Kings’ defense:
“That goalie has been playing good obviously. We had a few scrambles, but when we get that amount of power play time that we have, we have to get it moving and get some opportunities.”
MORE POST-GAME COVERAGE:
Tyler Toffoli talks Kings 4-1 win over the Sharks and his developing game
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com
I’m loving the top line right now. Carter and Kopitar work well together, King is perfect to get in there for all the garbage and create space. If Tyler and Richards ever get comfortable together and they find someone to be productive on the other wing, they’ll be dangerous too.