Yesterday, the Los Angeles Kings (5-3-3) didn't play their best game we've seen on the ice this season from them this fall. But Jim Hiller and the Kings managed to pull out a win while playing one of their worst games of the season on the ice, thanks to the play of Darcy Kuemper in net.
Los Angeles Kings and Jim Hiller return home from a successful road trip after beating the Sharks 4-3
The Kings defeated the division rival San Jose Sharks to get their second straight win and fourth win in the past five games, by a score of 4-3, despite being outshot by a margin of 40-14.
Hiller spoke about the Kings' 4-3 regulation win over the Sharks with the media postgame yesterday.
There were a lot of positives and some negatives for Hiller and the Kings to take away from this hard-fought win over the Sharks yesterday. The fact of the matter is that the Kings came away from this five-game road trip in the West with nine points and four wins (including two regulation victories).
Here's a look at everything Hiller said to the media postgame following the Kings' 4-3 win over the Sharks in San Jose on Oct. 28.
Jim Hiller
On the takeaways from the win over San Jose last night
"We were just talking about it, that there’s no question we didn’t, but there’ve been times this season where we have, and we’ve come out on the short end of a pretty good goaltending ourselves. So, we’ll take it. It’s great to see Darcy back in full form, the type of season he had last year, so that’s really important for us. They had better legs than we did; that was really clear, but what a road trip. It takes a lot of character to get nine out of 10, and we’ll take it, but we need a break, though. We need a rest, there’s no question."
On what he thought was absent for the Kings on the ice vs. San Jose
"Clearly, we had no legs, but then we compounded the issue by turning the puck over and over and over again. Sometimes when the legs aren’t there, the brain’s not there, and the hands aren’t there, and I don’t think any of those three were working in unison tonight for us, but we’ll take it. We’ll take it. It’s a long season, it’s 82 games, there’s games like this. You’re just happy when you can sneak a few of those ones out."
On the Sharks emerging as a good young team in the West
"They beat us twice last year, too. So, it seems to me like it's continuing to be a good rivalry. So, they're they have a good young team. Like I said, they got us last year. So I suspect it'll be just like Anaheim, and the California teams will just continue to battle and battle for many years in the future."
On Corey Perry getting in the lineup and his impact on the team
You know what? It's just incredible. These are some of the things I guess as a coach, you really just get to appreciate. You bring a guy like Corey, and you battled against him for years. Never enjoyed coaching against him. And you get him on your side, and he just keeps going. It's really incredible. Some guys the puck just ends up on their stick. He's at the front of the net, so he gives himself every opportunity. You wish you could teach it and that other players could learn from it. Some guys just have a special ability, and he's one of them."
On what the team can learn from the win vs. San Jose
"We’ve gone through some of that before. I just think tonight, we’re not going to spend a lot of time on this game tonight. They’re done, they’re fried. They need a rest, we need a rest. We’re just going to tuck that one away and look forward to Detroit."
On Brandt Clarke scoring the game-winning goal in the third period
"What I really liked about it was, he came up the wide side, Juice delayed just a little bit, Clarkie read the ice, took the ice, and got himself available, and those are the moments that he has to go. He’s got the green light, he just has to make the read, and he saw the opportunity; he went and probably surprised us all a little bit with that shot. That’s not normally what he’s known for, the shot, but that was just an unbelievable shot."
On his thoughts on the road trip overall
"In the end, we’ll take all the points. That was a tough trip, lots of travel, lots of tight games with the overtime games, which were well documented. The one was an empty-net goal, right, so other than that, it’s been one-goal games.
It’s hard. It’s hard mentally, it’s hard physically, when you’re in those types of games, sometimes, if you can get up three or four goals, it’s a little easier, if you get down three or four goals, you get blown out, the guys can conserve their energy, they know the outcome is probably decided, and maybe we’ll just turn the lines over and they can save some energy for the next game. This was just scratching and clawing from zero to 60 and into 65 some nights."