Kings Locker Room: Iafallo on Communication & McLellan on Individual Mistakes

The Los Angeles Kings couldn't extend their win streak to four games against the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday. Feeling the effects of back-to-back games in a big way, the Kings were a step behind all night.

Hear from Alex Iafallo and Todd McLellan after a tough loss.

Iafallo on what was missing against Tampa:

Communication. Defensive zone (we) gave up a lot of chances down the pipe. I feel like we had to take away chances through the middle and we didn't from the start.

On individual mistakes versus structural breakdowns:

I guess both, when you don't communicate it leads to individual (mistakes). I just feel like, as a whole, we didn't get it done defensively. Defense and offense. Sometimes that's the way it goes and you have to try and regroup after that happens and we didn't.

On a lack of communication all night or just on goals against:

From the start, I think. Maybe just in the d(efensive) zone actually. If one guy's cutting then you have to tell the other guy to cover for each other so certain mishaps like that lead to goals. 

McLellan on if recent bad habits creeped into the first-period performance:

Actually, the first period wasn't a disaster. We made three or four mistakes and they ended up in our net, that happens often in a game, it's just these guys capitalized on it. They're very capable of doing that. I thought our communication in the d(efensive) zone wasn't where it needed to be, sometimes we had opportunities for clean breakouts we didn't execute. And then, they got alone around our net a lot, so, our net play was poor. But, I don't think that the first period was the disaster we might think it was. A few mistakes and it's in our net.

On Quick's lack of wins impacting the team at all:

No, it doesn't affect the team emotionally or mentally. He goes in to play, I thought he played a pretty damn good game and made some good saves when we needed them. Players are pulling for him. It's actually a pretty good motivating factor right now, we care about him and we want to play hard for him and we'll get him a win.

On the Danault line getting some momentum off a lucky goal:

Yeah, sometimes you have to get an ugly one or a fortunate one, if you will, to go your way. The puck will go in the net for you eventually. You look at Iafallo last night, he started the game with a post, started the third period with a post. They're getting close and things are almost in the net for them. Arvy (Arvidsson) starts the game with a two-on-one right off the bat today. So they have some looks and you aren't going to be clean all year, you'll go through some ups and downs. But, I think the line is playing better now than it did five or six games ago.