Following the Kings 3-2 win over the Sharks to close out the 2013 regular season, here’s what coach Darryl Sutter had to share…
– On taking care of business tonight: “We’ve tried to do it for all year. Take care of business. So, it’s over”
– On facing St. Louis: “They’re an improved team obviously from the last time we played them. Passed regular season, the addition of Bouwmeester and Leopold, and probably the biggest difference would be…You know they were really down to one goalie last year after splitting, and I think it affected their team. So they’re clear who their goalie is now.”
– On Mike Richards not playing late in the game: “Oh, he struggled before the game. He’s been sick.”
– On being confident facing the Blues, given LA’s eight straight victories over them: “Regular season’s over, and it really has no bearing on anything for me. Zero. I don’t know what it means. If we’d have played Vancouver – we just as well could’ve played them – they kicked the shit out of us this year, and I’m confident in playing them, too.”
– On how Matt Greene feels: “I’m sure he’s happy. He gets to come to St. Louis with us tomorrow.”
– On traveling tomorrow: “Yeah, Sunday. What else we gonna do?”
– On if he’s heard they will likely start on Tuesday: “Yup. Better to be safe than sorry. We get as much info as you guys do. Very simple. You guys know how it works.”
– On if there’s any disappointment not locking down the fourth seed: “Well it’s two years in a row we’ve missed it by one point. So that’s all it is. When you think about it, how close it is through the course of a season. Am I disappointed? No, because quite honestly I’m proud of the players. Heck there was a point in January. You were one of them. Fourteenth or fifteenth place, how are you going to catch up?”
– On his thoughts on the Kings road record this season: “It’s over and done. The season is over and done. We had a great season to be quite honest.”
– On if the team is playing the way he wants them to going into the playoffs: “We played very well tonight.”
– On if he’s planning to keep the players in a hotel like he did last year: “We don’t know when we’re playing yet. So it might be tough getting a room.”
– On any specific things he’d like to see improvement on going in: “Well quite honestly not having Brownie the last two games, and then trying to get Greener back in. In a perfect world you always want to be settled in your lines and pairs going into the playoffs, but obviously that’s not going to be the case. The condensed schedule has affected us. Like talking about when our games are. If you look at last year, we played St. Louis in the second round. And also in the Vancouver series, there were times in that series where we played one game in six days. Not between series, during series. this year they’re going to jam it down your throat. You know that. So the depth part of it and being able to mix is maybe something that will help us. Because that’s what we’ve been doing. I really don’t know. I mean we’re into a whole different…Just the way the season was in terms of how it was so compacted. And we’re probably gonna see that again.”
– On the Kings’ size making them ‘built for the playoffs': “Well I think our opponent is too. They’re not going to forget last year. As I’ve said, you’re not going to catch anybody by surprise now.”
– On their being a revenge factor on the Blues side going in: “You’ll have to talk to them.”
– On if he’s feeling good about things going in: “I feel really good. How do you guys feel?”
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Vintage Sutter!
I feel good too coach. Thank you for asking.