12-1 Preview – Changes Expected + Internal Meeting, Commitment To Change, Madden Recalled

Last updated Unknown Edit Source

• News post

• Zach Dooley

The Kings return to action this evening as they host the Arizona Coyotes at Crypto.com Arena.

• Samuel Fagemo
• Arthur Kaliyev
• Tobias Bjornfot
• Drew Doughty
• Anze Kopitar
• Tyler Madden

• Rob Blake

# Rob Blake

I did, I just felt the need to do it, not specifically on Cal, but specifically on that we want to get better in a lot of areas. When you get to the 20, 25-game mark, it just kind of coincided with all of that yesterday.

There are some areas that we need to improve on and there are some areas that we’ve made progress at, for sure. The biggest thing is consistency and I don’t think I’m the only one saying it, the players have said it, Todd’s said it. Sometimes, you get in a room together with everybody, coaches, myself and that theme is common amongst our group.

# Anze Kopitar

It wasn’t a whole ton about X’s and O’s, just going back to playing the way that we need to play to win games, that’s the bottom line.

It’s getting back to the checking mindset of things. Yes, we would like to score goals, but we can’t just be trading chances back and forth. It’s going back, looking back to last year, how we checked and everybody has a big part in doing that. We’ve got to start working and playing more towards that.

# Todd McLellan

Well, [we’re] certainly saying the same thing, we’re on the same page, which is a real good thing. It’s not often that Rob or any general manager that I’ve been around frequents the locker room in those types of situations and for as much as it can be deemed a negative signal to many, it could also be a positive one, because there are some things that the team is doing well. He recognizes, or we recognize, those but there are also things that need to get cleaned up, so it works both ways.

With individuals, those are random, those are guys just making a poor play at a critical time and that happens on every team, we’re just getting a few too many of them right now. Then, it’s group and then it’s structure and group can be lines, maybe extending a shift and giving up a scoring chance at the 45 second mark versus being fresh. It can be structure, us not executing as well within it, or us not getting into it.

# Drew Doughty

We can’t be giving up chances, trading chances with other teams, that’s not how we’re going to win games, you saw it when we lost the game [versus Seattle]. Playing better, defensive hockey, more physical and still scoring goals, we want to still score goals, but there’s a difference between scoring goals by cheating and scoring goals by playing the right way and we’re not doing it the right way.