Despite the laughs that former teammates Jarret Stoll and Rob Scuderi shared pre-game (photo courtesy of NHLPA), it’s likely one of them wasn’t very happy later in the evening. After being downed by the Penguins 4-1 on Thursday night, the Kings have now scored only three goals total over their last five games. All have come off the stick of Anze Kopitar. Everybody is scratching their collective heads wondering what’s gone wrong. Here’s what coach Darryl Sutter, Matt Greene and Jonathan Quick had to say back in the locker room area…
Darryl Sutter on the overall game:
“They scored the first minute, we battled back, and Kopi made a big power-play goal. They got the five-on-three and it was pretty tough to get a save in there and it takes the wind out of you. You can’t be pissed for scoring one goal, but it’s not just about scoring goals. We won in San Jose, that was a tough game, we didn’t score in Phoenix so we lost, and tonight we lost.”
Sutter on switching goalies:
“I should have made the change after the third goal, that’s not putting anything on Jonathan. I should have made the change sooner; they scored three goals on five or six shots. I’m not a big guy on changing goalies, but that’s not something historic that I’ve done.”
Sutter on coaching against Brandon Sutter:
“He’s a good player, I’ve seen him play his whole life. I spent some time with him yesterday and it was good.”
Matt Greene on Pittsburgh’s play:
“They had the two quick goals. They are a high powered team. It’s tough to come back when you aren’t scoring a lot of goals, and when you give up two on the penalty kill. It’s tough chasing in a game against a team like this.”
Greene on if the Kings are looking for a spark:
“It’s got to come from in here. We’ve got everybody here, and we’ve got to provide that spark on our own, and if not, we’ve got to make some changes. Right now it’s up to us to get this going.”
Greene on what the Kings need to do differently on Saturday:
“We’ve got to be better all the way through. There are a lot of things that have to change from tonight’s game.”
Greene on scoring three goals in five games:
“We’re getting chances that we’ve got to bury, but we’ve also got to tighten up. You can’t give up three goals in the first period. That’s it. Especially when you’re not scoring. From the defense side there’s a lot of holes in our game right now. You can’t point to one thing and say ‘that’s it.’ There’s a lot of things that need to get tightened up right away.”
Greene on if the team feels like it’s close to turning things around:
“Some games yes, some games no.”
Jonathan Quick on Pittsburgh’s power play:
“If you give any team a five-on-three they are going to create chances. They get one there, and then they get a two-on-one where they beat me over the shoulder. At that point, we are not out of the game. We just couldn’t get it together enough to get a couple [of goals].”
Quick on if the intense schedule is difficult:
“Everybody has the same schedule, everybody deals with it.”
Quick on the focus for Saturday’s game:
“We’re looking to get two points, that’s the focus.”
Quick on if he was OK with being pulled:
“No, you never are.”
Quick on the team struggling offensively:
“That has nothing to do with what my job is on the team. My job is to stop the puck, and I wasn’t able to do that tonight. I’ll look at the video, get better for the next game.”
Quick on the importance of playing better before the Olympic break:
“It’s important to get two points on Saturday, so that’s the focus.”
Quick on playing in front of his Olympic coach:
“I didn’t talk to him. That’s not the focus. The focus was to get two points tonight and we weren’t able to do that.”
Also, former Kings goaltending prospect Jeff Zatkoff had this to say about beating his former team on Thursday.
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