They came into the barren dressing room, one by one, some clean shaven, others still bearing the traces of playoff beards that didn't have nearly enough time to grow out. On a day when many of the Kings believed that they should have been preparing for their next opponent or, at the very worst, in Vancouver getting ready for Game 7 against the Canucks, they were instead assembling for a final meeting with the media, their season over, a long summer looming ahead.

Among the revelations:

Coach Terry Murray conceded that as far as his number one goalie Jonathan Quick was concerned, "I maybe played him too much the last month" of the regular season. Quick appeared in a franchise-record 72 games and his 4,258 minutes played was the second-highest total in the NHL.

"Quick was tremendous for us," Murray said. "The importance for establishing a number one goaltender for this organization was very important because it’s gone through a lot of looks in that position over the years. We always seem to go to ‘that’s the one position that’s been lacking.’ And to put Quick in that position and let him take this hockey club as far as he could go, to me was very important, and I don’t regret that. He played well, he played phenomenal at times to get us into the playoffs."

So well, that Murray couldn't figure out a way to rest him.

"At that point," Murray said, "I’d already made a commitment to him and maybe backed away a little too far from [backup Erik] Ersberg being able to jump in and get some rhythm to his game and giving us those solid games that would have spelled relief for Quick."

Murray also said that because the final stretch of the season were so critical for the Kings and positioning themselves for the playoffs, he couldn't afford not to go with his number one guy.

"I thought about that long before we got to the end of the year," he said. "Should I take Quick out? And then the last 20 games of the season became such critical games for us, you want to win, you’re looking at finishing in the top four so you have home ice. You want to get your team and your goaltender ready for the playoffs. There’s a lot of things I thought about as we kept going.

"In the early part of the playoffs he played tremendous, going through those first couple of games up in Vancouver. We were on our heels in those games. They were coming at us, they were pinching and pressing. Everytime they got the puck they were on the attack and you’re wondering, holy Jeez…buy Quick was there. He played extremely well."

And as far as the goaltending situation is concerned looking ahead to next season:

"[Quick] is our number one goalie. There will be no discussion about it coming into training camp. He’s our guy. Then we’ll see where the competition goes from there and who is going to be the number two guy. I’m not going to carry three goaltenders.

"[Jonathan] Bernier’s been phenomenal. He’s going to maybe be the MVP down there [for the Kings Manchester, NH affiliate in the AHL]. He played two played two great games for us this year—against Nashville and Vancouver. He’s going to be there, battling for that number two job. So we’ll see how that shakes out. If it ends up being Quick, with Bernier earning the number two position over Ersberg, I know what I saw in those games that he’s a very capable."

And even 48 hours after the season abruptly ended, Murray said he was still a tad stunned that the Kings weren't still in the mix.

"It was a series that I thought we were going to extend and get to that Game 7," he said. "I’ve been in them before. You never know what can happen and I think we could have given ourselves a good opportunity to win the series."

Instead, Murray and his players were left to contemplate all the ifs, buts and maybes, like the inability to hold onto and extend that lead that the Kings took into the third period in Game 4 against the Canucks. If they had done so, they would have taken a 3-1 lead in the series.

"That’s kind of a tough bullet to bite right now," said Dustin Brown. " I think Game 4 shows you how you let up for a second and how quickly it can flip."

"Those are games that you have to win," said Jack Johnson, "and you can’t blow third period leads. I don’t think there’s any secret lesson that needs to be learned. It’s just you’re in the playoffs and when you get a chance to put a team down 3-1, if you got a lead you gotta build on it. I think that’s pretty obvious from the get-go."

"The next step is to close out games and have that killer instinct when you go into the third period with a lead," said Anze Kopitar. "It doesn’t matter if it’s one goal or whatever—just keep playing that game that brought us there and finish them off."

"It’s learning that when you have a chance to finish teams off," said Ryan Smyth, "you do it. Game 4, going into the third, that was a big pivotal point in the series and losing the game. You gotta have instincts to finish teams off—and we didn’t have that."

So, the question was asked, how do they get whatever "that" is?

"It’s within that locker room," said Smyth, "and you gotta raise that level again and again, it’s gotta be relentless and you gotta believe in it. There was moments and times throughout that we did believe and had some momentum shifters, whether it was throughout the games or each shift or period, but it didn’t happen."

All the Kings realize that the challenge for them next season will be even tougher than it was in this breakthrough campaign, which resulted in the first post-season appearance for the franchise in eight years.

"I'm sure it will be tougher," said Michal Handzus, "and that’s how it should be. We should have an expectation to be better and obviously I think the whole city and organization should have higher expectations. Sometimes it’s easier to be under radar. But next year we won’t be under radar. Everyone’s going to know we have a good team. There’s going to be more pressure on us, but it’s welcome pressure that we can go to the playoffs and do something special. So I think there will be excitement right from training camp that we can do something special."

"Just making the playoffs isn’t enough anymore," said Johnson. "That shouldn’t be the goal for anyone. The goal is to win the whole thing—that’s why you play. Just because you made the playoffs one year doesn’t mean that things are hunkey-dorey. The expectations should be building every year and truthfully, the expectations should be the Stanley Cup."

As for whether the Kings have the players who can make that happen, Murray was unequivocal.

"Those pieces are here," he said. " We got premier players here. We’ve got guys who are going to be true stars, award winning players in this league. So there’s a lot of pieces in place, especially at the top end."

But, he added, it's imperative for two players that he singled out in particular--Kopitar and Drew Doughty--“to take on ownership of the hockey club. That’s going to be very important for those two players in particular to exert their authority, their experience, their desire to want to be a better hockey player individually and desire for this team to be moved up into the top tier of teams in the league. And that only happens whenever you have your young guys starting to take over ownership of your hockey club.

"So Kopitar needs to push his linemates and other guys. Doughty is going to demand more from the back end guys. He’s going to be more demanding of the team in critical situations in the locker room. Whenever you have those players who are the key core guys get to that point, then as a team and an organization you really do take the next step."

Kopitar said that he knows there's a higher level for him to reach and committed himself to working even harder this summer than he did before this breakout season--with personal highs in goals, assists and points (34-47-81).

As for Doughty, the kid who is now a Norris Trophy candidate after just his second season in the league, said that there's lots for him to improve upon, especially his shot from the point, which already took a quantum leap from his rookie year.

"I want to get it to that spot where guys are scared to block it," he said, "kinda like a Shea Weber shot, or something like that. I obviously want to get in the best condition I can. I still got a ways to go there, still got the baby fat, or whatever you want to call it so I’ll see what I can do to work that off and become, I guess, a man."

Everybody chuckled. The kid doesn't turn 21 until early December.

NOTES

Doughty said that he's been nursing a sprained wrist since Game 1 of the Vancouver series and therefore will not be playing in the World Championships. And with July 1st rapidly approaching, the question was raised about signing a long-term deal with the Kings.

"I obviously have thought about it," he said. "There haven’t been any talks about it but I’d love to sign a long-term deal. I love being in LA and I love the group of guys we got. So to be able to stick around here a long time would be awesome."

And Brown is going to pass on playing in the Worlds too, not only to spend time with his family, but also to begin some extensive work on his teeth, or lack thereof.

"It's pretty extensive," he said, "I need a major bone graft. I'm starting to lose my bone. It’s one surgery and that has to heal for 5 or 6 months and then another surgery. So it takes 2 or 3 years to do, the way our schedule is, so I figure I’ll start on it now.

"Just from a personal standpoint," Brownie added with a grin, "having teeth is nice."