Even With 2-0 Series Lead, Los Angeles Kings Know They Need To Be Much Better

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EL SEGUNDO, CA — After returning to the Los Angeles area with a surprising 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven, quarter final round playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks, winners of the President’s Trophy for earning the best record in the National Hockey League this season, one might expect to see huge smiles, lots of laughter, and joking around by the players, showing excitement, and even joy, about their good fortune so far in the playoffs.

But instead of floating on Cloud Nine, the Kings appear to have their feet planted firmly on the ground, knowing that despite having a considerable lead in the series, they did not play all that well in Game 2 on April 13, in Vancouver.

“If you look at Game 2, we had too many turnovers,” said right wing and team captain Dustin Brown. “They had some good chances [off those turnovers], and [goaltender Jonathan] Quick had to make some big saves. We turned the puck over just inside our blue line, [instead of] getting pucks out.”

“I thought we turned too many pucks over last night, and gave them a lot of opportunities, which allowed them to play in our zone a whole lot,” said center Mike Richards. “In the first game, we got pucks in deep. We didn’t try to make those [risky] plays in the neutral zone.” Read more of this post