Postgame comments collected following the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 OT victory over the visiting Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night at the Honda Center…
Justin Williams on getting one point rather than two:
“The last two games in this building, we’ve given up third period leads. Which, come playoff time, is a recipe for elimination, so something we’ve obviously got to look at. We need to shut those games down.”
Williams on the frustration of giving up another third period lead:
“Well, yeah. We talked about it. They scored right away in the third. They’re, I would say, a good third period team. They get down a goal, they press, the D come down the wall. It’s full blown attack. We’re not an old team, were a veteran team. We’ve experienced a lot, so we need to find ways to rectify losing these third period leads and I know we will.”
Matt Greene on the frustration of losing after giving up a third period lead again:
“It’s really frustrating. That’s something we’ve been good at over the years, we’ve got to get back to that. If we want to have success, it’s going to be one goal games from here on out. We got to win these.”
Greene on the state of the Kings’ defensive unit:
“You have to play with whoever you’re with. That’s it, no excuse. Sekera has done a great job coming in here and being a pretty seamless transition with anybody he’s playing with, right side, left side. It’s up to us just to play. Guys have been around long enough to play with whoever they stick you with so that’s it.”
Greene on the Ducks response to Dustin Brown’s hit on Corey Perry in the first period:
“It’s a physical game, physical game. You got to expect that sort of stuff. That’s it, it’s part of the game.”
Dustin Brown on the overall game:
“There’s been momentum swings here and there. They’ve been the top team in the league so it comes down to little plays and the little tiny things that make a difference. When you look at their first goal as a communication goal, we lost our communication. There’s an extra man coming out of the box so we didn’t pick it up quick enough.”
Brown on the emotional response when the Ducks scored to take the lead in the third period
Justin [Williams] scored a big goal for us. I thought we carried the play the last four minutes. We had opportunities right before Justin scored and right after to score again. At the end of the day we had a 1-0 lead and had to climb back out of a game late here, and that’s probably something we need to change.
Darryl Sutter on the third period and overtime goal:
“We had enough energy to get a point. They looked fresher and were able to use four lines more than we were able to… [Ryan] Kesler made a good play down low on Drew [Doughty], came all the way around and shot the puck. [Jonathan Quick] didn’t see it. That’s what I saw from the bench.”
Sutter on the idea Jonathan Quick may have been interfered with on the Ducks’ second goal:
“I’m not sure who the player was, but he shoved Muzzin. Basically, that’s Muzzin losing a battle of inches. He’s who ran into Jonathan.”
Ryan Kesler on his overtime goal:
“I’m not sure who our defenseman was that brought in Marian Gaborik, but that messed up their coverage. I just rounded the corner and saw I had a lot of time to place the puck.”
Jakob Silfverberg on his goal:
“We did a great job in the neutral zone. Hampus [Lindholm] took some ice and kicked it out to the boards. Me and Cogs [Andrew Cogliano] made a drop pass and I just finished through to the net. He made a great shot off the pad and it came straight out to me. I was just putting it into an empty net.”
Bruce Boudreau on playing the Kings:
“It’s always a test playing them, whether it’s a preseason game or playoff game. They play with great structure and effort. It’s really difficult, but our team is competing pretty well right now. It makes for a good test.”
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The Ducks appear to be the physically stronger team. Getzlaf and Kessler are more physical than Carter and Kopitar and that theme continues throughout the line-ups. The Ducks are also as fast, or faster than the Kings and appear to be deeper on the blue line. The joker in the deck is JQ. He’s better than anybody the Ducks can throw out there in goal.
I don’t believe RR and Greene will hold up in the playoffs. RR will likely get hurt and Greene will be exploited if playing in the second pairing. The Kings other weakness is at center where Shore, though more talented than Stoll ever was, is not quite ready for the 3C role and Stoll is only good enough for fourth line duty when he returns.
The Kings won’t go easily but unless JQ plays the best hockey of his life, it seems highly unlikely they can win the Cup again this year.
Yeah this is what I do not understand about the Sekera trade, why give up so much to still play Drew 30 minutes a night and Regehr on the first pair (and as you mentioned, i.e Greene).
Any way you slice it, the Kings don’t have a legitimate top-two D-man on the roster except for DD.
It’s for that reason the defensive pairings simply can’t be worked out very well. The Sekera trade doesn’t bother me that much because, despite not being a piece that fits perfectly, I do believe he’s a top-four defenseman which gives the Kings more depth on the back end.
I think McNabb-Sekera is O.k. as well as RR-Martinez (they were fine last year early in the playoffs) or Martinez-Greene as a third pairing (again effective in the playoffs last season) but Muzzin is not a great fit with DD. They’re fine offensively but not in their own zone where Muzzin still makes way too many poor decisions and DD is a good, but not great, defender.
In the future maybe McNabb or Forbort can play effectively with DD but for now, the D pairings are a problem.
Agree. Posted several comments on twitter last night re: this topic, including:
For me, this is still the most logical answer to the #LAKings questions on defense …. https://t.co/weZ81dpJgj
— The Mayor John Hoven (@mayorNHL) March 19, 2015
(which referenced this original tweet)
The first problem is the Kings aren’t, at this moment, sure of making the playoffs. I think they will but it can’t be assumed, so difficult to start resting players.
I have also thought about pairing Sekera with DD but am not confident the other pairings would work. McNabb is O.K. if paired with a reliable partner but McBain is still a bit suspect defensively. RR and MG are a recipe for disaster if forechecked effectively. Besides, the Kings are not going to bench Muzzin. Also, what about Martinez? He should be back shortly.