Kings Locker Room: Kopitar on Positives in a Loss & McLellan on Line Shuffling

You can't score five goals every game, something the Los Angeles Kings learned in their 2-1 loss against the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night. 

After an explosive run for the Kings' offense following the All-Star break, the goals dried up in Minnesota. 

Despite the loss, Anze Kopitar felt their were positives to take from the game and Todd McLellan addressed some line shuffling. Hear from Kopitar and McLellan after Tuesday's game.

Kopitar on not getting chances to go in:

I thought we played a good game, solid throughout all three zones. But maybe a little bit of bad luck, not getting the bounces. But they played a tight game in their d-zone, so you've got to give them credit. Maybe just passed up on a few shooting opportunities, but that's going to happen. There's a lot of positives that we can draw out of this one and take them into the next one.

On the response after going down 1-0:

Like I said, we got some good o-zone time, we just couldn't get it to go. So, there goalie played good and, like I said, give them credit where credit is due.

On if shuffling the lines gave the team a spark:

I mean, your just trying to find something to maybe get a goal. But, unfortunately, tonight it didn't work out.

On what the mentality is when the puck isn't going in:

Try to simplify, not trying to be too cute. Get a lot of stuff towards the net. Like the goal we scored was maybe a foot from the goal line where I got it. Sometimes when things aren't going, just try and get it there and create something off a scramble.

McLellan on his takeaways from the game:

We got what we expected. We're leaving here without any points but I thought we played a pretty good game, we played hard, we created a number of good chances. I'm sure their goaltender was probably the first star. We've just got to find a way to convert. Some nights it doesn't go your way. I didn't think we had a lot of passengers, everybody engaged in the game. So, we'll chalk it up, move on and try and recover for the next one.

On if he liked the response after going down 1-0:

I think we got a little energy out of the offside call and after that penalty kill did its job. And then we went and had some energy. Unfortunately, we didn't get the first one and they're a tough team to play against when they have the lead. Reminds me a lot of our team.

On if he thought players were getting too 'cute' offensively:

Yeah, I think especially to start the third, there was a ten minute phase there where we were passing through five guys. It worked early in the game when we went to the pads and we were able to find rebounds and take our chances that way. And we probably wasted 7-10 minutes of the third, but when we figured it out again it started to go our way. Just not enough.

On what he was looking for with the line shuffling:

Well, we're in an interesting spot as a team. We have four lines I think that can score, or a considerable number of players on those lines that can score. And some guys were creating chances, others weren't so we're looking for the best offensive combinations we could find. Our team right now is deep, it's not built the traditional way because you've got some scoring wingers on the third and fourth line. And try to find them opportunities to leave their mark on the game.