The Los Angeles Kings dropped Game 4, but given that they still have a 3-1 series lead, they have no reason to panic.
“It’s a good lesson for us,” Dustin Penner said of the loss. “We had got the bounces, for the most part, until tonight. They threw themselves in front of a lot of shots. Their PK was really good and they got a power-play goal. So, they definitely earned this one, and we couldn’t find an answer for Smith.”
Penner thinks the Kings need to put more pressure on Smith in the future.
“You talk about screen, tip, rebound, and we didn’t get enough of that tonight,” Penner said. “We let him see too many pucks, and we didn’t get enough second chances.”
Anze Kopitar thinks the Kings need to simplify things when they have the man advantage and get more bodies in front of the Coyotes’ net to make Smith’s job harder. At the same time, Kopitar also isn’t going to blow this loss out of proportion.
“We’re still in a good position,” Kopitar said. “We have to hit the reset button, refocus and make sure we have a lot of energy for Tuesday.”
After all, there are plenty of teams that have won Game 4 when facing elimination. The vast majority of those teams weren’t able to come back and win their series.