"The challenge of staying on top and consistently competing with the big boys, the challenge for the club is very different than building. I said that two years ago, for all of us, general manager, coach and players … I talked to all those people. They said, 'You're not going to understand it until you go through it.'

"We've got to all learn from it, to get that consistency."

"I never lose faith in them. That's the one thing I come back to when we're in this. I know deep down they care. Even when we were down 3-0 or whatever. They've shown me too many times that they'll figure it out."

-Dean Lombardi, GM of the Los Angeles Kings. More from Helene Elliott of the LA Times.