Comments from Kings coach Darryl Sutter following the team’s practice in Chicago on Tuesday…
Q. You have been so stingy in giving up goals the last couple years. The Hawks have been able to get two or three a game. What allows them to do that?
SUTTER: I only look at it from a playoff standpoint. Chicago’s leading the playoffs in goals-against and we’re not. Chicago and Boston were first and second through the playoffs. So what was the question? Why we haven’t scored against them.
Q. Why they’re able to score against you.
SUTTER: If you can allow less than two, if you’re based on a regular season, that’s very stingy. I think we set a team record this year for goals-against which was something like 2.06 or something. If the other team scores three, that’s not significant, is it, in today’s game?
Q. Why do you think the Toews line was successful against your top line defensively in Game 1?
SUTTER: They’re a great line. Jonathan Toews, he is the best two-way player in the National Hockey League. Hossa is right there next in terms of wingers. That’s for sure.
Q. Hossa, do you think he gets as much attention as he maybe deserves for the kind of game he plays?
SUTTER: Yeah, at his age, he’s still a dominant player. I think pretty much when he’s healthy, you can see it, he’s a dominant player in the game still. Plays the whole game, in terms of the whole package, in terms of the three zones, both sides of the puck. He’s been a very effective player, great player for a long time. You look at the teams he’s played on, too, why they’ve had success, he’s a big part of it.
Q. Justin Williams gets a lot of attention whenever it’s Game 7, but not as much whenever it’s not a Game 7. What does he do so well to help you guys keep the puck?
SUTTER: He hangs onto the puck, goes to traffic, hangs onto the puck, makes the plays. Takes a beating to make plays. He’s a role model for young players, for sure.
Q. Did you know him before you coached him?
SUTTER: I didn’t know Justin that well as a player because he was in the other conference and I hadn’t seen him much. In Los Angeles, he’d come there, I think he played with a bad shoulder most of the time when he was there, when he first was traded. See him in Philly or Carolina not that often. That’s the big thing now is the stat, the possession stat, that guys talk about. Justin is for sure one of the top guys in the league.
Q. Considering how quickly last year you had to play that Game 2, this extra day off, do you think this benefits your team more considering all the hockey you played and the quick turnaround between series?
SUTTER: So last year was back-to-back?
Q. Yes.
SUTTER: I can’t remember where we came from, if it was a long trip here. I don’t remember it was back-to-back. I kind of stay in the present. We’re a team that handles the schedule really well. We played really well the other night. I don’t think it bothered us. I don’t think tomorrow’s going to bother us either. We get used to that on the West Coast.
Q. Logistically with having to change hotels, anything weird about this one? You had the Star Trek convention last year at the airport.
SUTTER: That’s what happens in playoffs. You don’t know your scheduling. Especially with the city being so busy, the conventions going on. We talked about it before we came here. We knew we were changing hotels.
Comments from the Blackhawks practice were posted here.
