Everything Jim Hiller said after the LA Kings' OT win vs. Anaheim

The pace the Los Angeles Kings (5-2-0) and center Phillip Danault were scoring at for the game's first 45 minutes or so today against the Anaheim Ducks (4-3-1) made the preseason finale look like it was going to be a blowout. At the very least, the Kings being up 4-0 on the Ducks and outshooting Anaheim by a margin of two-to-one definitely made it look like a convincing win was in the works this afternoon.

Jim Hiller and the Los Angeles Kings nearly blow a 4-0 lead late in overtime against the Anaheim Ducks in the preseason finale

But the Ducks came roaring back late in the third period, scoring four goals in a span of under 11 minutes in the game's final frame. The Ducks scored on a tip-in goal late in the third period to send this game to overtime after Anaheim by was down by a margin of 4-0 on the scoreboard with just over 10 minutes left.

Kevin Fiala notched the game-winning goal for the Kings in overtime to win by a score of 5-4. Head coach Jim Hiller and the Kings finished up the preseason with five wins, including three victories over the crosstown rival Ducks this fall.

But the third-period collapse was very concerning, to say the very least, for Hiller and the Kings going into the upcoming regular season next week against the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 7.

Here's a look at everything Hiller said to the media following the Kings' 5-4 overtime win in the preseason finale over the Ducks at Crypto.com Arena on Oct. 4.

Jim Hiller

On the play of the team in the preseason finale this afternoon

"Well for 50 minutes, right? Then we saw, you guys saw it too, then we got tight, and you see what happens really quickly. That’s why it’s a great game. Great League, great game. You don’t do it right, sometimes the coaches complain all the time, do it right, players get tired of hearing it and then every once in a while you get that and that’s why you have to keep it saying it."

On what the Kings can learn from the near-loss to the Ducks today

"There are two ways to look at it. We could have locked that thing down and felt really good about ourselves, or we could play like we did for a little bit and start panicking and realize, whoa, this isn’t how we have to do it here starting Tuesday. In the end, we’re happy we won. It was a really nice goal to finish the game. Great penalty kill, three versus four, Kopi and Phil doing a great job as well with the D. I don’t know if this was good for us or bad for us, we’ll see on Tuesday, but we’ll put it behind us for sure."

On Joel Armia

"I’ve really come to appreciate Joel’s game. I think in training camp, originally, it jumped out at me how big he is. I didn’t know he was that big, and then you get on the ice beside him, and then you see how well he moved for a big guy that size. For the full training camp, he’s the one player for me that I’ve just come to appreciate more and more. He played a lot of minutes tonight, and I thought, Phil, you can argue Phil was probably our best forward."

I" know he had two goals and an assist, played really well, but Armia was right there with him, I thought. Tonight, he really complimented those guys. He showed us he can play, I don’t know where we’re going to put him, but much like Turc, he can go anywhere up the lineup, but he’s really made a good, strong impression through preseason."

On the injury status of Alex Laferriere going into the regular season opener next week

"I don’t know for sure. He’s just not 100 percent right now. We’ll see what the next few days bring, a couple of days, but he’s not a guarantee."