The latest edition of ‘What will Sutter say?’ comes his post-game presser following the Kings 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets,,,
– On the overall game: “They didn’t have a lot of shots obviously, but besides that we played really good defensively and scored big goals. That’s the way we’re going to have to play right? To be successful.”
– On if the Kings’ have put their slow starts behind them now that they’ve played their third consecutive 60 minute game: “I don’t think so. I thought tonight we had a slow start. I thought we got better as the first period went along, but you know what? They’re a real physical team, and you gotta match up with them physically.”
– On team’s defensive improvement over past three games: “We’re trying to improve on it. I mean there’s parts of our game that we have to absolutely demand that we get better at it because of the inexperience on the back end.
– On the performance of the Kings’ young defensemen tonight: “They were solid. You know what it’s…It’s not about singling guys out. There were no big mistakes right? So you don’t have to single guys out right? It’s like the first question. If you limit them to only that many shots… that means as a group, not just as a defense; we played well enough to win.”
– On the injuries forcing Voynov to have as much ice time as he’s had: “We have to play them. It’s got nothing to do with what we were expecting at the start of the season right? You know we lost Mitchell, Greene, and Martinez. Three guys that were regular top six guys, so there’s only three more. So they gotta play more, and it’s a little bit ‘as they go’ right? You know how it goes. Slava’s been really good. You look at it minutes wise and how he has to play against players and he gives us power play. You know we’ve tried to get him into some penalty killing stuff. So give him credit. He’s the youngest guy on our defense. So when you think about how young they are, that’s a kid that’s really stepping up.”
– On his starting goalie in Chicago: “Jeez, I haven’t thought about it quite honestly I didn’t know who it was yesterday. It’s a good situation right? I said we’re going to ride a hot goalie, but at the same time our schedule is going to demand Jonathan and Jonathan will both play well for us. (Laughter)”
– On how he likes the new lines: “You know there’s very few lines (with) chemistry in the NHL. It’s usually two guys and then somebody else right? Every teams like that not just ours. There’s some guys that play together Kopitar/Brown, Stoll/Lewis pretty much split Richards and Carter up to get more out of our center icemen. So you know what there just a bunch of young guys up there too, and they’re trying to find their way and we’re trying to show them the way. So we’ve got some older guys that still haven’t scored a goal this year. We’re actually a quarter of the way into our season so their on a pace that’s not really career averages so we’ve got to keep working with them.”
– On Clifford’s goal: “The best decision is to shoot two on one right? He shot the puck.”
– On whether the best line is whichever line Clifford is on: “He didn’t play much tonight. He didn’t play on…He was on two or three lines. We just need his energy and we need his physical presence. If you look at it he has only had not even a shot a game, and we’ve been talking to him about shooting pucks more instead of looking off and…Like he had the one shot tonight, but he’s only had seven or eight all year. If you shoot the puck sometimes good things happen.”
– On if Clifford’s lack of shooting is about maturity and/or confidence: “It’s a little bit of both…It’s maturity and having the offensive ability to know when to do it and when not to do it.”
More post-game quotes coming soon.
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About John Hoven
You know what? Sutter is great. Right? Thanks for the post-game quotes. I could barely understand a damn thing when I watched the video.