Kings Locker Room: Kempe, Copley & More

A win over the Florida Panthers give the Los Angeles Kings three wins in a row following a three-game losing streak that worried fans.

It was a hard-fought victory with Florida pushing hard in the second half that was highlighted by the penalty kill and Pheonix Copley in net.

Hear from Copley, Adrian Kempe and Todd McLellan postgame.

Kempe on Florida's late push:

Good character win. I think we played alright in the third, the second wasn't our best. We played good in the first half of the second period and then we gave it back in the last five-ten minutes. In the third, we knew they were going to push back, I think we did a good job all the way to the last minutes. They all have a lot of skill and scoring forwards so they were going to get some chances. And we have to keep it out of our net as much as possible.

On the penalty kill:

It was great. The amount of time they had on the power play, it's hard to keep them out of the net for the entire game. But I think we did a great job staying aggressive in the zone. I think with our good players, we didn't give them a lot of chances. So, that was a big factor. 

On if the shorthanded goal swung momentum for the Kings:

Yeah, for sure. That was early in the game but it was a good momentum gainer for use. And obviously, they were looking for the rest of the game to get that back and didn't so that was probably frustrating for them. Yeah, good for us, we trusted the PK all night, everyone did a good job. 

Copley on a career-high in saves:

I think more importantly it's a win. I don't really care too much about that, obviously, I can see the shot counter but I try not to pay too much attention to that. I just keep the puck out.

On the penalty kill:

It was huge, gave us some momentum. Their power play was hot coming in so we knew we had to do a job there and did. That kind of gave us some life. 

On bouncing back after a few tough starts last week:

Give the boys a better chance to win, it was obviously kind of frustrating in those couple of games. I know I have better to give so I just kind of looked in the mirror and said play my game. And that's all I can do, I kind of simplified it and played with a little more attitude.

McLellan on dealing with Florida's late push:

Well, we can look at it from a positive perspective. Good teams, when the momentum swings as much as it did tonight, find ways to win and that's what we did tonight. From the negative side, we're up 3-0 and a couple quick goals put us on our heels. So, we have work to do and growth to gain when those things happen. But, they're a tough team to play. They have a lot of offensive weapons. In my opinion, they're feeling it now, they look much more like the team we played last year than at the beginning of the season. So, fortunate to come away, we'll take the two points and move on. And hopefully, they beat the rest of the teams in the west.

On the five-minute major decision:

There was, apparently, you know this is how it goes with rules. And apparently, there's a rule if a player is tripped and goes violently into the boards they can review it for a major. But there's no such thing as a major for tripping so they converted it to a boarding penalty. In that situation, they obviously weren't going to call anything, to begin with. The linesman got involved, they reviewed it, like they should, and assessed the major. After the major, you review it again and that's what they came up with. So, confusing but you never want to see anyone go into the end wall. But it's new, something I haven't experienced.