Following the Minnesota Wild’s 2-1 shootout win over the LA Kings, here’s what was being said in both locker rooms…
Darryl Sutter on the overall game:
“We had some unfinished opportunities. When you get to a shootout and they score the first goal… both goalies were good. Quick didn’t have a lot of work, but he had to make some good saves for us. Their guy had a lot of work and made a lot of saves.”
Sutter on the lack of scoring:
“You can’t always expect the big guys to score all of the time. We need to get more secondary scoring, and more opportunities from our defense.”
Jonathan Quick on the overall game:
“We outplayed them for 60 minutes and their goalie made some big saves to keep them in there. They win in the shootout.“
Jarret Stoll on the mindset in third period:
“To stick with it and be patient. There were some areas where he had to get better and that was obviously the offensive side of the game. We were fine. We were obviously controlling the play.“
Stoll on the feeling of deserving to win:
“Yeah but in a long season there are some games you win that you don’t deserve to win. Hopefully you’re on the better side of those and get points out of those games. We just couldn’t find a way to get the second point.”
Stoll on Kuemper’s play:
“Yeah he played great. Got to give him credit for sure. He made some big saves. He doesn’t have a lot of experience in this league but he’s a big guy, moves well., is very athletic, and worked hard to see pucks.“
MINNESOTA HEAD COACH MIKE YEO on the overall game:
“It’s a start, it’s good to get one. I’m really happy for Darcy. He kind of got thrown into a game where he wasn’t quite expecting to play until this morning and he responded extremely well. I thought that a lot of guys really competed and battled and played good games for us tonight, but certainly you have to look at him tonight.”
More Yeo:
“There was a while there where our execution wasn’t there, we were turning pucks over left and right and really making things very difficult on ourselves. Right from the start Nino stepped up, and that’s a statement for those kids to come out and play like that. It’s a good statement for the rest of the team that our young players can come in and play like that.”
MINNESOTA FORWARD MIKAEL GRANLUND on the overall game:
“I think we battled hard and sure most of the time they had the puck but we got going and got those two points and those are huge points for us. We need to play better. Sure we missed some guys but that’s not an excuse. We have to keep building and other guys need to step up to get those points.”
Granlund on making Finland’s Olympic Roster: “This morning was when the roster came up. That was when I knew for sure. It’s good to be on the team. It’s going to be a great tournament. Our team, Finland, we know we don’t have the best roster or we don’t have the best players, but we play together in our structure and we have great goalies and succeed.”
MINNESOTA GOALTENDER DARCY KUEMPER on the overall game:
“Obviously it was a chance to redeem myself and my game is definitely where I want it to be right now. I’ve been working on it a lot and playing good down there so I tried not to change anything when I came up here and it worked out pretty good tonight. A lot of familiar faces and everyone battled hard tonight. We bent a few times, but didn’t break. We did a really good job of picking up sticks and eliminating second chances and that made it a lot easier on me. After I got those first few shots on net, I just settled down and got to playing.”
Kuemper on the shootout success:
“This was my first shootout so yeah I was pretty pumped to stop that first one and then just go from there. That first one I was a little nervous for.”
The Kings are a defensive team with few “finishers” in the line-up so it’s not a shock they don’t score all that much. Combine the lack of offensive punch through out the line-up with DS using his players in a defensive- first- mode and what you get is a team in the bottom third of the league in scoring.
Over the past couple of seasons teams like Blackhawks (who had to re-load after having cap problems), Blues, Ducks, and even the Sharks and Avalanche have all improved their rosters. The King have not improved. That is on DL who understandably stood pat after the Cup win and tried to do it again with the same players last season. The current team is probably not good enough to win again. Both the Hawks and Blues both have more talented rosters than the Kings from top to bottom.
DL and Kings like many teams had cap issues this season but DL did it to himself by paying role players like Stoll and Greene too much money. Greene is currently a healthy scratch and Stoll does not help his wingers offensively by being a good set-up man and doesn’t score enough himself to justify the minutes he plays. He also does not add size or speed to the line-up which also help offensively. He should be a 4th line center used to kill penalties and win face-offs. Part of the problem is DL loves players like Stoll and Lewis because he was much the same kind of player himself so he over uses these kind of players…Interesting to note that despite his preference for players like that, Sutter, in seven plus seasons with Chicago was a – career player.
Now DL and the many fans are talking about the Kings needing a scorer. DS is not an offensive minded coach and is not a great talent evaluator. He is a great motivator who prepares the team really well and understands what he wants to do defensively-those are his strengths. Even if the Kings brought in another scorer (at what cost?) he probably wouldn’t score that much in Sutter’s system. The real need is to bring in another left side D-Man who is a legitimate top four guy, something the Kings currently lack. Muzzin is likely to crack under pressure in the playoffs and RR will be turning the puck over. WM simply isn’t as good as before.
The Kings have untapped offensive talent in TT and TP, who if used correctly, which they are currently not, could give the Kings the offensive boost they need. Forgot about trading for a scoring and winger and get the D-Man, TL, KC, MG and LV are also expendable! Are you listening DL??