Comments from coach Darryl Sutter after the Kings eliminated the St. Louis Blues and advanced to the second round of the 2013 NHL playoffs…
On if he knew that Penner’s goal was good:
“You know what? Clock couldn’t tell you, right? But we got it within a couple seconds if there was still two-tenths. So we knew it was good.”
On what it says about the team coming back from a 0-2 deficit:
“Well it’s not easy to come down from…You know, not many teams will do it period. But still, the best part about our team is it didn’t matter if we were down two-nothing or up two-nothing. It was still we have the mindset about the next game honestly. And take care of that, not the series.”
On if it’s hard to get the players to take the games one at a time:
“No, I think they believe in it. Otherwise, first off, you don’t make the playoffs being the defending champion, and you don’t win rounds being the defending champions. It’s not easy, and quite honestly, there’s a lot of pressure on our players. And I’ve said all year they’ve handled it real well, and they’ve had a tough hoe this series. It’s like talking to our players, you know what? St. Louis won a series last year, and we had to play them second round. There’s zero difference in the teams. They’ve finished ahead of us two years in a row. And I give both teams a lot of credit.”
On staying in-state the next round being an advantage given the grinding nature of the First Round:
“I just know we finished six in ten days, and we need to give just to reset. Then we’ll see. That’s up to coaches to get to work on who we play and let the players. (The travel, how much does that help in the next series?) I have no idea. We’ve kind of. We’re really not looking at that yet.”
On his there being a mutual respect between him and Ken Hitchcock:
“He’s a great coach. You know, we’ve both coached a long time. So when…That’s one thing about guys that have coached a long time, they’ve usually coached good players and good teams. That’s how they do it. And so that’s why there’s respect there. Because you know you gotta go down the road, and there’s a lot of tough times.”
On Penner’s performance in the series with two goals:
“He matched his season. He’s matched his regular season.”
On if he felt Penner was strong tonight influencing his decision to use him more:
“Nope. I think we used…It was strictly an attrition thing Mark. Wasn’t trying to use him more. We tried to use everybody more. That’s what it is. We played six in ten days. With not much rest in between. Not much left in the tank. I think whoever scored the first goal tonight was gonna win.”
On how good the team is right now:
“We’re beat up and tired. We’ll practice Sunday and know by Monday who we play. Monday morning.”
On when he felt the series turned:
“I’m sure when they were up two-nothing in our building. We come back and make it 2-2. Had an impact on the series. But, I don’t know if there was ever a turning point. I just said it all along. Repeated that. It was more of a shift-to-shift deal. I think tonight was a little different because one team, if they didn’t win, was going to be eliminated. So they’re gonna pile it on. And that’s what they tried to do, and we just tried to hang on.”
On what he felt gave the final edge to the team:
“I don’t think there’s anything to do with series. Goals-against, critical. Penalty killing, critical. Scoring big goals, critical. And face-offs are critical. We got better as we went along.”
On if he can taste it again:
“I don’t think you get much for winning four games, other than tomorrow off.”
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