Comments from coach Darryl Sutter’s post-game presser, following Kings 5-1 win over the Predators…
– On the difference tonight versus the previous two match-ups with Nashville: “I didn’t think there was much difference actually. Two games prior, a power play goal was the only goal we scored. Tonight we scored two. Last game we lost 2-1 in a shootout. Could’ve just as easily won. So not much different.”
– On how much the team is benefiting from Carter’s hot streak: “He was hot tonight. I’m sure he’d tell you, he has struggled the last two games. So I wouldn’t say…If you traveled with us you wouldn’t necessarily say that he was hot. Right? So, he’ll tell you that. He goes back to work tonight, he gets rewarded. With his skill set he gets rewarded. It’s not like it was magic or something tonight. He did a great job on his shots. He did a great job of stripping the puck and scoring on a break-away.”
– On Carter saying he “guessed lucky” on the break-away: “Well, we ask our F1…That’s what we call it. He has got to be that guy that kind of dictates stuff for us if he is that guy on the front part of it. Not very often you can force a turnover like that, but at least we…The rest of the four guys on the ice know what direction it’s going to go. So his skill set allowed him to do it. Quick hands, quick feet; if he doesn’t score then he gets a penalty shot. So then you’d be asking, ‘how come he didn’t score on the penalty shot.’ Just get used to it, right? He could have got another one, right? He should’ve got a fourth.”
– On how good it is to see Slava Voynov get three assists after his minus-3 in the last game: “It’s actually…Yeah that’s right, it’s only been a handful of regular season games. He has played a lot of minutes for a kid. It’s not encouraging or discouraging when Slava has a rough night or good night. He’s a good player.”
– On a late offensive surge being carried over to the next game: “Yeah, it could be possible. Guess we’ll find out. I don’t really know.”
– On the Kings slow start in tonight’s game: “It wasn’t a slow start. We were doing EXACTLY what we wanted to do, right? Tough team to play against. It’s just exactly what you asked last time we played Nashville. Were you here last time we played Nashville in this building? Remember? How many shots did they have? (15) What was the score? Great goalie at that end, missed the net by that much, lots of times. It has nothing to do with a slow start. I thought we had an awesome start actually.”
– On Alec Martinez coming back: “He was in and out, up and down, side to side. Trying to get him to be an effective young player. So we’ll evaluate and make a decision on it tomorrow again.”
– On if he preaches closing out games or if the team does it naturally: “You want to get off to a good start, and the way hockey is, you try to get everybody in there early. There’s not an offense that goes on, or a defense that goes on. Its groups of five, right? So we just try to everything right shift-by-shift, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m not…There’s no…It may appear like that from upstairs or somewhere else, but the way the league is, there’s very little momentum. It’s just about staying with your game and playing your game, and it’s hard to do all the time. That’s the biggest thing you try to handle as a coach when you have a really young team. You know one of the youngest in the league again. It’s not letting anything they think is a high or a low during the game affect them. That’s what you’re trying to do.”
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I really like this comment:
“It’s not encouraging or discouraging when Slava has a rough night or good night. He’s a good player.”
That’s a big-picture perspective and a long-term commitment; the days of reactive leadership appear to be in remission. Let’s hope they never come back.