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Kings after deadline: Notes and quotes from Kings’ 4-1 victory over Nashville

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Because there’s some nice stuff here and because we know that Kings media relations whiz Jeremy Zager’s grandma loves to see him get some publicity, we hereby present the quotes and factoids compiled by JZ and his crack staff:

Kings Coach Terry Murray

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On the game: “We’re in a good position here with our start. When you come out of the training camp that’s what you’ve worked so hard for, throughout the summer and throughout the training camp as we get ready to play games and to win games.’

On poor starts to games last season: “It’s been a big focus. It’s been something that was addressed the first day of the training camp when everyone arrived. You welcome everyone and hit on a few hot topics, and that was number one with the importance of it. I think that it proves out to be sort of the point, if you get off to a good start and get the first goal of the game and have a lead at the end of the first period, the percentages of games that you’re going to win is incredibly high. Last year our percentage was .856 games that we won. It’s a pretty amazing stat.’

Forward Ryan Smyth, who became the 257th player to appear in 1,000 NHL games

On Saturday’s game, which featured his teammates wearing mullet wigs in his honor during the warmups: “It started off with a nice gesture with the boys bringing out their mullets, and it dated me a little bit, but it was awesome. The boys played well tonight. I thought [Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Scott Parse] started us off great. They had some energy and gave us some life, and [we] just kept going. Relentless. [Jonathan] Bernier played strong. It was great. All around we had a lot of depth tonight and it was just nice to get the win.”

On playing in his 1,000th game: “It’s an honor. It’s overwhelming. I obviously still remember the first game, but it’s been 1,000 games. You look back and there’s some great times, there’s some tough times, there’s sad times. You go through so many different emotions throughout every hockey game, and obviously I can’t remember them all, but I’m just honored to play in the NHL.”

On the team scoring from different angles Saturday night: “It’s nice to get them all from different angles and different areas, because we work on it a lot going down the wing taking shots. Whether it gets off the far pad or a rebound, but we work at it pretty consistent. It was great to see that everybody stepped up to the occasion.”

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Goaltender Jonathan Bernier

On his team’s scoring effort: “I think that was our game plan at first, come out strong. We had some issues in the past [against Nashville], but it was a really big two points for our confidence right now.”

On his team’s defense: “It was great. I can’t complain about that. All the shots were from the outside. They had a few scoring chances on the power play, but most of it was outstanding.’

Nashville Coach Barry Trotz

On the game: “Everything that we know they can do, they did tonight and we didn’t really prevent them from doing a whole lot. They got off to a good start, they had a good low game going, and they beat us to the pucks all over the ice.

‘We didn’t give [goaltender] Pekka Rinne a lot of support and offensively they didn’t give us much.”

“Wins aren’t coming real easy for us and because it’s not coming real easy, it gets frustrating. We need to stick together and stay determined because we aren’t going through an easy time right now.”

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Nashville defenseman Shea Weber

On the game: “We haven’t been very good for awhile. Even at the start of the year. We got to be a lot better in here. It comes down to looking at yourself in the mirror and being ready to go every night. We got to get things going so whatever it takes we got to figure something out in here and get rolling.”

Kings Notes

The Kings (10-3-0) have the most wins and points in the NHL.

The Kings have won four straight and six of their last seven.

The Kings’ 10 wins after 13 games ties a club record (1980-81 club also had 10 wins in first 13 games).

The Kings’ 20 points after 13 games is tied for the second most (1974-75 club was 8-1-4=20pts).

The most points after 13 games in franchise history is 21 (1980-81 club was 10-2-1=21pts).

The Kings are 6-0-0 at home. The club record for home winning streak to start a season is seven; done in 1980-81 and 1975-76.

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Ryan Smyth became the 257th NHL player to play in 1,000 games and the 17th player to play his 1,000th game in a Kings uniform.

The line of Smyth, Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams (2-2=4 tonight) has now combined for 34 points in the last 11 games (14-20=34).

Williams (two assists) extended his point streak to seven games (4-5=9). His career-high point streak is nine games (Nov. 15 – Dec. 2, 2005). He has 13 points in the last 11 games (5-8=13).

Stoll has 12 points in the last 11 games (5-7=12).

Smyth has nine points in the last 11 games (4-5=9).

Nashville’s goal in the third period broke a Kings scoreless streak of 146:58 (dating back to second period Oct. 30 vs. NJ).

Anze Kopitar has 11 points in the last 12 games (4-7=11).

The Kings remain the only NHL team not to have allowed a power-play goal at home. Their penalty killing was three for three Saturday and is 21 for 21 at home this season.

The Kings have outscored their opponents, 26-18, in five-on-five situations this season.

The Kings have sold out five of their six home games this season.

The Kings won’t practice Sunday because of the Tip-a-King event (more information available at www.lakings.com/tipaking). Their next practice will take place Monday at 10 a.m. at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.

--Helene Elliott

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