Kings v Preds – morning comments from Darryl Sutter

Things were relatively quiet around the Kings’ training facility this morning for their pre-game skate vs. Nashville. Here’s what coach Darryl Sutter had to say…

– On tonight’s game: “We just want to continue to play well and hopefully get points out of it.”

– On fixing the power play: “Continue to work at it and finish our opportunities…continue to get them and then finish them.”

– On how to penetrate Nashville, a team with several responsible forwards: “Match up against their veteran centermen. Three guys that are really taking care of both ends of the ice. And then they’re really smart players as far as the neutral zone; being quarterbacks. So, we have to match up with those three guys. And then, obviously, have awareness that they have two defensemen who shoot the puck a lot.”

– On who will be the back-up goalie for the Kings tonight: “For our team? That’s a dumb question, but I don’t have a dumb answer.”

– On if Jonathan Quick will start in net tonight: “You asked that 30 times last year; you know the answer. If you get here for warm-ups and he’s the first guy out and he doesn’t get hurt in warm-up then that’s generally the guy who starts for every team. It’s kind of a backwards question right? You want to know who’s backing up. So that basically tells you who’s starting. So, remember it’s not baseball.”

– On the strong play of the fourth line to start the season: “Is that Stollie’s line?…(answered – No Fraser’s line)…Oh, you’re looking for production from whatever you would class as the fourth line. It’s really just based on production. I’m not sure which line it is. I think that the kids on the fourth…there hasn’t been a consistent fourth line really. Jordan and Fraz have been on it, and we’ve been trying to get other guys going.”

– On if Dustin Penner will play tonight: “We’ll see after they sing the song.”

NOTE: Penner skated after practice in the ‘extra players’ group. So, it’s highly unlikely he’ll play tonight.

– On if Penner has been working hard to get back in the line-up: “You know, we’re trying to get his conditioning to a point where he’s game ready.”

While some of his answers today were real gems, they weren’t as good as a few days ago…when he was on fire – see here.

Also, be sure to enter tonight’s First Goal Contest. Simply guess who will score first for the Kings and you could win a prize package.

Follow @mayorNHL

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com