On the forecheck in Game 5:
“We talked about trying to stop their forecehck. I’m sure that’s what they talked about it also. Both teams do that really well. It basically becomes a zone time thing.”
On the Kings avoiding the Sharks forecheck by getting out of their own zone quickly in Game 5:
“I think that’s not just our team, that’s every team that’s in the playoffs… I’ve said it lots, but this is not a defending league anymore. Teams that just want to defend and play in their own zone don’t have much success.”
On the Kings still having so many guys on their roster from the 2012 Cup team:
“It’s not just ‘go out and do what you need to do’ because that didn’t work in Games 1 and 2. I don’t know what that has to do with anything. Quite honestly, the experience in this series is leaning on the team that has home ice. They do have more playoff experience. I think it becomes a little bit of playoff experience, not just winning experience. When you get beat in the Finals that is just as good winning quite honestly because you go through the process and the journey of it all. You’re paying every other day.”
On the keys to a successful forecheck:
“Matching skill sets, not everybody has the same skill set. But there’s also, it’s an easy game from up top. It’s an easy game from the bench. But there is a lot of hockey sense involved – meaning, understanding and knowing the game. And also, the more you play the same team over and over, the more you’re out there against the same player a lot, there’s a lot of courage involved.”
On if there are any differences in preparation, depending who the Sharks start in goal:
“Not really. I know it’s been a big thing that we’ve heard [even] before the series started, who was starting and then who was playing for them on defense and who was playing forward. But, when you get into a Game 6, one team has been really fortunate to use the same line-up every night.”
On another two goal comeback in the playoffs last night (Dallas vs Anaheim):
“When it’s all said and done you’ll add it up. I know you’re really good at the math and analytics, but you’re going to add it up and it’s going to be take out empty nets, and it’s going to be 3-2. That’s what it is.”
On how he coaches differently now than 10 years ago when he had a chance to win a Cup in Game 6:
“Different teams, different personnel, different ages. That team, with the old rules, was pretty much a grind team. That was a Kiprusoff, Iginla, Regehr team. Now the game is more – teams that are moving on and get to play longer, there’s a star factor, for sure. Coaches now have to have a good relationship with those guys.”
More on his use of the word courage earlier:
“Guys get banged up as a series goes along. There’s certainly a more controlled physical part in the playoffs… it’s about the whistle to whistle part of it, and there is a lot more contact than there is in the regular season, for sure… Top players have to be more invested in that part of it. In the end, that’s sort of how it all sorts out. When the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks are not looked at as a big, physical team. They’re looked at as a team who executes and plays hard and their star players do it. They do that for you.”
Morning skate quotes from Kings captain Dustin Brown here.
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