It’s our new feature – What Will Sutter Say?
Here we’ll bring you all the post-game or post-practice knowledge Kings’ coach Darryl Sutter passes along.
Today, he talked about Dustin Penner, shot blocking, the Anaheim Ducks and more. Check it out…
– On if Penner will return to the line-up tomorrow in Anaheim: “Yup, he’s ready to go…I think there’s elements that he can bring that we need in our lineup.”
– On if Penner will get power play time: “That second group of guys kind of slide in and out depending on who it is and how they’re doing.”
– On the proper antidote for team’s that block a lot of shots: “Keep changing angles. Try to change angles and let the puck do some more of the work. Nashville has three guys that block a lot of shots. It’s not like it’s something special against us…(Nashville’s) Gill, Weber, and Hannan are all really top guys in the league at it. So, it’s no different than when we played New Jersey in the playoffs last year. They blocked a lot of shots and we just tried to work around it.”
– Is blocking shots less painful now than 20 years ago: “Players are taught now more to get into the shooting lanes more than they were in the past. I think there’s a lot more lanes from the goaltender to the shooter that are blocked than at any time. I know in Tampa they’ve become great at it, the Rangers have become great at it and now you have specialists, so it’s way better. It’s at a premium for guys that do it.”
– On the differences between the Ducks and Predators: “Well they’re a fast team, a bigger team, right? You know the team we played last night, those fast teams can (be tough) up front for wingers. You know Nashville is very strong down the center, as far as their experience and what they bring. And with Ryan and Koivu, that’s what they bring too. Both are good hockey clubs.”
– Is the message to keep spending so much time in the offensive zone, even though you didn’t score last night: “No question about it. We played good hockey last night. So finish a little bit more. You don’t get many opportunities; that’s the way teams are. Everybody’s playing a playoff brand of hockey already.”
– On Davis Drewiske and Jake Muzzin replacing Matt Greene and Willie Mitchell: “I don’t think it was quite as sharp last night. A couple of our young guys didn’t handle the speed quite as well. Not so much the speed on the outside, but speed down low and things like that. And that is an issue against Anaheim because they are so good down low, especially their top line.”
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