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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSJune 4, 2013Jonathan QuickJustin WilliamsLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Three Los Angeles – 3 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Justin, please. Q. (No microphone.) JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I think it's tougher to be quicker than the Blackhawks. They're a speed team. I thought we established what we wanted to do early. We continued that through the whole game. That showed up on the score sheet. Q. You guys looked like completely different teams on the road and home. You have to win a game there. What do you have to do? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: You're right, we're going to have to eventually win one there. That's not our focus there. I can't explain why we're unbeaten at home or why we were 10‑1 last year. As you know, we've cut it in half. Now it's important for us to even it up. Eventually, as you said, we're going to have to win one there. We're not focused on that yet. We're focused on Thursday. Q. This was a game you had to win. How satisfying is it to win in a must‑win situation? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: We know the stats, the teams that have come back from 3‑0. It's not very good. I said before the game, it wasn't a must‑win, but it was a must‑win. We responded with a great effort, top to bottom. We got it done. Q. It seemed like you were able to disrupt their spacing a little more tonight. Was that an adjustment or just a matter of intensity? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: We were just quicker. We were quicker everywhere on the ice. They're a transition team. They're an explosive offensive team if you give them opportunities. We limited their time and space because we were on our toes instead of our heels. We were able to spend a lot more time in the offensive zone than we did in the first two games. In turn, we were able to make some things in there. Q. Talk about the physical play, how important that was tonight. Is that the key to beating these guys for the long haul? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I'm not sure what the key is. Certainly that's a big part of it. You have to be hard on their top players. You have to be hard on their defense because they're very mobile. If you don't hit them, they're going to jump by you and get an opportunity. We tried to do that especially early. Q. (No microphone.) JUSTIN WILLIAMS: There's always adjustments to be had. Jarret was the center tonight. Sometimes when you switch lines up, play with different players, you're able to simplify a lot more, play more of a straight‑ahead game. We were able to get pucks behind them. In turn, as I said, have a lot more offensive zone time. Q. Rob Scuderi talked about when you work hard you can make breaks for yourself. The Voynov goal, broken stick, finds a way to get in. Talk about the effort. JUSTIN WILLIAMS: I think for the most part the result on the scoreboard is usually the result of how the team played. If you didn't play great, you're not usually going to win. I thought we just played better than them tonight. They played better than us the first two games. Sometimes those go in. It was a broken‑bat single that went in from Voynov there. Hey, we had a lot of zone time against them. That was one that paid off. Q. (No microphone.) JUSTIN WILLIAMS: That was awesome. I came to him after the game. I don't know if everyone saw it. That was an amazing save to preserve the lead. That's what you need. You're going to need that, especially since we didn't put that team away, when we were up 2‑0, didn't get that goal on a four‑minute power‑play, so had to grind it out towards the end. That was a huge save. It's like a broken record with Quick. He keeps saying, Yeah, it was a big save. There's not much more you can say. Q. (No microphone.) JUSTIN WILLIAMS: Obviously it was a dirty play, but I'm not sure that Keith obviously meant to do it that hard. Looked like he wanted to go make sure he was okay after. I think it was more of an instinct thing. But I don't think it was a malicious intent, no. Q. Coming back to Slava, it seems to be a trend. How does he manage to find the quiet ice when the play is so congested? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: Have to ask him. He seems to find some ways. As you said, he seems to find some holes. Even though he doesn't speak too much English, he talks a lot on the ice surprisingly. You always know when he's open. He jumped in the play. He scored some huge goals for us. Q. Have you picked up any Russian so you can talk to him? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: No. Not even the dirty words. Q. A win is a win, it's a great win. Talk about doing it the hard way, basically scoring two goals, how hard it's going to be down the road. JUSTIN WILLIAMS: We got three. Q. We won't count the empty‑netter. JUSTIN WILLIAMS: We got three. We don't care how we got it done. Everyone has been saying the Kings have maybe grinded their way through a lot harder than it was last year. It is. It's supposed to be hard. We don't care if it's 5‑0 or 2‑1, which it usually is. If it's another 2‑1 game, we'll take that as well. Q. Has your outlook as a professional athlete changed at all now that you're venturing to win your third championship? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: No, the drive is still there. The drive to play is as late as the hockey season, the last team standing, that's something as a hockey player. It keeps driving me. You want to win another championship. I know everyone in there, in our room, wants to win as well. You don't want to see anyone else raise that Cup over their head but you. It's too frustrating. You don't want to watch it. We're going to do our best to make sure we're the ones. Q. The first two games, they were good in the neutral zone. You guys were struggling. What was the difference tonight? JUSTIN WILLIAMS: It's a series. It is what it is. Usually not going to win four straight. Usually not going to lose four straight. There's ups and downs in a series. They were better; we are better. We need to continue to elevate. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jonathan Quick. Q. Can you describe that last save on Bickell, what you saw. JONATHAN QUICK: On the initial shot, I kind of got bumped a little, spun a little off angle. Wasn't really able to put the rebound where I wanted to. Ends up on his stick. You're just trying to cover net. Got fortunate, hit two blockers. Obviously it was a big save at the time. You got to get lucky sometimes, so it was good. Q. Did you think it had gotten past you and in? JONATHAN QUICK: No. I mean, I saw it all the way. He's in tight. You don't have much time to react. I saw it all the way, into my blocker. When he's that close, you know, you get that split second where you don't know if you're going to get a piece of it or not. Q. Given how much pressure you put on yourself in situations like even on Sunday night, how important was it for you to have a game like this tonight? JONATHAN QUICK: I mean, overall, in your head you tell yourself you got to play better in Game4. I didn't like the goal I gave up. There's some things I would like to clean up for the next game. But I just think from a team standpoint, it was good to win. You're down 2‑0, you need a win. We got to approach the game the same way. We're trying to just win one game on Thursday. Q. What did you see that made the difference tonight as opposed to the last couple of games? JONATHAN QUICK: I think we played our game. We got the first goal. Typically we've played well with leads. I think it was more our speed, our tempo. I think we dictated the game a little more than we did in the first two games. Obviously in Chicago, we had moments we were able to do that, but not for the full 60 like we were able to do today. At the end of the day, it's one game, you move on. You try to win one game on Thursday. Q. The play of Justin Williams, lately especially, the roll he's on, what do you see? JONATHAN QUICK: He's a great player that's been in these situations before, and he knows how to handle himself, he knows how to be prepared when he steps out on the ice. He scored many clutch goals so far in these playoffs. We probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. Q. Physical play a huge part of this one. How about Matt Greene, what he's doing. JONATHAN QUICK: Yeah, no, we got five other guys back there that are doing a great job, as well. Obviously the big thing we were missing when he was out was kind of his leadership. As well as he's playing on the ice, I think one of the bigger contributions to this team is what he does in the locker room, how he gets guys going. He's a great leader. Q. (No microphone.) JONATHAN QUICK: They both played great over the course of the year. Marty played great the past few years for us. This is Muzzin's first year. They're both strong‑moving defensemen, skate well, play minutes on the power‑play. They both played really well for us. Q. How about the home ice, what you've been able to do here with this streak? What are the true keys to carry it over to the next game? JONATHAN QUICK: Shouldn't really matter whether you're home or away. You should approach the game the same way. We've kind of been forced to win at home just because we haven't played as well on the road. We don't put too much thought into the streak or anything like that. Every time we come here, we're just trying to win one game. I'm sure if you asked Chicago that at the beginning of the year about their streak, they'd give you the same answer. We've been fortunate to get them while we're here and we haven't been fortunate on the road. We're looking to tie the series up on Thursday and win one game. Q. It seemed like particularly their bigger guys were going to the front of the net tonight. How did you respond to that personally and as a group? JONATHAN QUICK: I mean, as a team, they do a great job getting guys to the front of net. It's something that you expect. This time of year, a lot of times you're not going to score many goals unless you got guys at the front of the net, trying to make the goalie not see the puck, create stuff in front of the net. Yeah, you expect that. They're bigger guys, so you got to work your way around and try to find the puck when you can. Yeah, you expect it. Q. Why are you playing so differently on the road? Is it something you're trying to figure out what's going on? JONATHAN QUICK: We got to win at home. We got another game we have to win at home before we go on the road. That's our focus right now. Obviously we've been saying that for the past two series, you know, we got to do what we do at home on the road. We got to win a game at home in the next couple days. That's all our focus is. After that we got to get ready for another game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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