Western Conference Post Game 1 Transcripts: Los Angeles Kings

Last night was game one of the Western Conference Final between the Los Angeles Kings and the Phoenix Coyotes.  The Kings defeated Phoenix by a score of 4-2 behind some brillian goaltending from Jonathan Quick and some timely scoring from their captain Dustin Brown.

The post game interview below is from the NHL, and I thought this might give those of you who don’t really follow the West a look inside:

An interview with:

                           COACH DARRYL SUTTER
                              DUSTIN BROWN
                              JARRET STOLL

THE MODERATOR:  Questions for Coach Sutter.

     Q.   The  pass of Voynov, a lot of people don’t know about him.  Talk
about Voynov.
     COACH  SUTTER:   Good  partner for Willie Mitchell.  Played the right
side, moved the puck, played against the top players.

     Q.   You  were the aggressors tonight.  How important was that to set
the tone?
     COACH  SUTTER:   Do  you know the Coyotes have won both games at home
prior  series,  right?   It  was  really important we had a good start.  It
wasn’t so much scoring or any of that stuff.  Just make sure we match their
start.
     We  were  able  to  overcome  a  rare  bad  goal against us, have the
resilience to stay with it.

     Q.   Your  PK continues to be very impressive.  I know you don’t like
to talk about it.
     COACH SUTTER:  We weren’t very good at it early.  We got better as we
went along.  The key is stay out of the penalty box (laughter).
     I  think there’s a lot that goes into the penalty kill, faceoff, shot
blocking  clearing  the puck down the ice, it’s a big job against obviously
against  these  guys  because  the  way Yandle moves back there and Larsson
moves  back  there,  Whitney, then they get the net presence, it’s tough to
handle.   Then  you got to be careful in your clears because Smith moves it
back up against the wall.

     Q.   Discuss  Dwight King, and the fact that you had the trust to put
him out there late in the game?
     COACH SUTTER:  Trust putting everybody out there late in the game.

     Q.  Can you talk about the Morris goal from the redline.
     COACH SUTTER:  I don’t think it rattled them at all.  As I said, it’s
a  rare  bad goal against them.  Our team was resilient enough just to play
through it.

     Q.   The play that Dustin Brown makes to make the Kopitar goal at the
start, how important is that?
     COACH  SUTTER:   I think it’s an important play because Kopie scored.
Don’t  you (laughter)?  If he didn’t, you wouldn’t have said anything about
it.
     That  line  in  the  first  period  had  a lot of good opportunities.
Because  they  scored,  it  sort of highlights it.  But the line was really
good in the first period.

     Q.   How are you feeling at 2-2 after the second period?  34 shots on
net, dominated play, but still an even game.
     COACH  SUTTER:   Means  we probably had lots of missed opportunities,
you  know.   That’s the way the game is, too.  We’ve been on the other side
of it, too, where you’re out-shot 2-1 and we’re on the other side of it.
     That’s the way it works some nights.

     Q.   You’ve coached some captains who were emotional leaders.  Dustin
Brown,  the  way  he’s  going right now, can you touch on the way he played
again tonight.
     COACH  SUTTER:   You  know what, the playoffs have been something for
him that he’s taken the next step, right?  That’s the key to it.  Right now
he’s  a playoff-type player because the game, it’s the way you have to play
at playoff times.
     You  think  about the intensity, the controlled emotion.  Probably if
you  said  tonight  he’d like to have the penalty back in the first period,
and he certainly covered his butt good by scoring the game winner.

     Q.  That top line you mentioned a little bit.  They’ve been on a roll
this whole post-season.  Have they played better at any point this year, in
your mind?
     COACH SUTTER:  I think the lines got good after we were able to play,
you know, Richards and Carter together, makes a difference, right?  Makes a
difference  who  is  playing  against who.  It’s just another dimension.  I
don’t think it’s got anything to do with this year.
     We started at zero tonight, right?  Everybody did.

     Q.  (No microphone.)
     COACH  SUTTER:  You got to make some big saves at some point to win a
hockey game.

     Q.   Does  a  goaltender  ever have anything to say when he gets back
into the room after that?
     COACH  SUTTER:   Yeah, I’m not sure if he did or not.  I mean, you’re
reloading.   I  don’t  think you can dwell on anything that’s a negative or
anything like that.  I think you’re getting ready for the next one.
     THE MODERATOR:  Thank you.
     Questions for Jarret or Dustin.

     Q.  Dustin, can you talk about the pass from Voynov?
     DUSTIN  BROWN:   Yeah,  I  mean, he’s a pretty skilled guy.  Not many
people  know  about  him.   He  has  the ability to make those long stretch
passes, which are not easy.
     We did a lot of those short plays breaking out.  I kind of caught one
of their D was sleeping a little bit, put it right on my tape.

     Q.   Jarret,  this  team  has shown a lot in this post-season.  To be
able  to  rebound  from  the  goal,  how are you able to play well in close
games?
     JARRET STOLL:  That was probably the biggest game we’ve had so far in
the playoffs with that much adversity against us.
     A tough goal.  Then a little miscommunication behind our net with our
goalie and our defense.  Tough goal to give up.  On the bench we were fine.
On  the  ice  we  were fine.  We kept pushing and pushing.  We knew we were
playing  our game for the most part there, great shifts.  Just kept staying
positive.
     We  all  know  on our team that wasn’t going to beat us.  That’s just
the way we played.

     Q.  Jarret, can you talk about the growth of Dwight King.
     JARRET  STOLL:   Yeah,  he’s a strong guy.  He’s very smart, too.  He
thinks  the  game  well.   With  me,  him and Lewis, we’re on the same page
defensively  trying  to  turnover pucks.  He protects the puck so well.  He
can  find  the  puck and score well.  He did it in junior.  A lot of people
have  done  it  in  junior.   You  come  up here, he’s contributed down the
stretch in the playoffs.
     It’s  not  easy  for  a  young guy coming in to be put in a role like
that,  be  playing an empty netter in the Western Conference final and he’s
on the ice.  So he’s a big part of our team.

     Q.  Did Jonathan Quick say anything during the first intermission?
     DUSTIN  BROWN:   No,  he didn’t say much.  Quicker, he doesn’t really
talk  a  lot.  He makes 25 big saves a game and he don’t say anything after
those.   He  lets  one in that he probably wants back, he just put his head
down and got back to work.
     There were one or two saves that were pretty remarkable in the third.
One on the blocker’s side.  I don’t know.  Four or five minutes left in the
third.  That definitely saved the game for us.
     He’s  one  of those guys, he gets right back at it and doesn’t let it
affect him.

     Q.   Dustin,  you  and  your  line obviously made things hard on them
tonight.  How much tougher does that become in Game 2?
     DUSTIN  BROWN:   It’s just like pretty much any series.  You get that
first game out of the way, start looking at film, tendencies.  I’m not sure
what they’re going to try to do to stop us.  It’s one of those things where
they’re going to make adjustments.
     It’s up to us as players to make adjustments in games to be effective
and have an impact on Game 2.

     Q.  Your PK was perfect against the Blues.  How much momentum are you
generating off that right now?
     JARRET  STOLL:   Quite  a bit.  Smart pressure.  You can pressure all
you want, if you’re not smart with it and you got one guy going and you got
two  guys  sitting back, gaps open up, lanes open up, a good power play can
pick you apart.
     We’re all on the same page, moving together, pressuring together.  If
you  get one extra guy in there, they’re going to get a shot, a chance.  As
long  as  it’s  not a grade-A scoring chance, Quicky is going to save those
all right.

     Q.   Jarret,  Dustin with the game winner tonight, can you talk about
the magical carpet ride that continues.
     JARRET STOLL:  He’s an all right player, yeah (laughter).  He’s doing
it all for us.  Both ends of the rink, too.  Not just offensively, which is
nice.  But coming back defensively, being physical, leading by example.  He
doesn’t  say  all  the rah-rah stuff sometimes, but he definitely speaks on
the ice.

     Q.   Dustin,  was  there ever a sense of frustration after the second
being tied at two?
     DUSTIN  BROWN:   No.  We knew coming in, you watch Phoenix play, they
got  a  really good goaltender.  Part of our thing is getting as many shots
on  him  as we can, make him work, make it hard for him.  The more saves he
has, the chances for us winning go up.
     On  the  flipside,  we  understand they’re a very opportunistic team.
They’ve  won  games  in this playoffs getting 10 shots, 12 shots.  They are
very  patient,  very  opportunistic.   They get a chance off the forecheck,
it’s 2-2, that didn’t change our mindset.
     I think we’re pretty well aware of how opportunistic they are.

I hope you enjoyed that, and I’ll try to bring you more of these from each conference final as they become available.

Thanks for reading.  We welcome your comments and opinions.

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