Quotes from Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter following the team’s evening practice at Levi’s Stadium, in advance of the 2015 NHL Stadium Series game vs. the San Jose Sharks…
Q.Is there anything you learned from last year’s game at Dodger Stadium, how d-men need to close gaps or maybe the puck doesn’t travel as fast?
DARRYL SUTTER: Well, actually, compared to the skate from Chavez Ravine to here, I guess last year it was better, and whether it was the temperature on that night or we went first.
Q. They had told us there was going to be a family skate. But I don’t think you guys brought many family?
SUTTER: No, I think most of the guys went through it last year. They had their families in. But being on the road, there’s a handful but I don’t think we have event half.
Q. You guys are in a grind right now obviously. Does this come at a good time to give it a mentally different look at a game?
SUTTER: You know, we’ve played really well for the last three weeks here, and just got to continue to just grind. It’s a busy schedule. It’s a road game for us and we have to play it like that.
Q. Having played in last year’s game, do you think of the awe or the factor of maybe guys won’t be in as much awe as they might have been if it was the first time?
SUTTER: Last year was significantly different because we were playing in a historic building last year. This is a new building. So I don’t think anything other than that is different. I thought it was pretty unique last year and pretty special to be able to do it. To be able to do it two years in a row for a lot of guys it’s obviously never going to happen again for them.
Q. Think a lot of the people from the league’s headquarters in New York would like to keep coming out here for outdoor games in the winter time.
SUTTER: I think from what’s been going on in the East the last couple of weeks, for sure (laughter). But I’d like to play a game in the snow too.
Q. Would you like to play some place like Minnesota?
SUTTER: I told my family that. Actually when we were playing in the snow. I made sure they came. Everybody thinks that everybody has played outdoors, but not many of the players have. These guys are too young. They may have skated outdoors, but very few played the game, other than last year, outdoors.
Q. Do you allow yourself to look around and take in the moment or do you have a singular focus because of the importance of the game?
SUTTER: Oh, no, you’ll take it in. I’m sure it’s all the players and it’s a lot of people. You say 70,000, but it’s probably more than that. From my standpoint if you think about it, if you had said 40 years ago to me that we could have played a game in Chavez Ravine and played one in the Bay Area, that was not…we were used to black and white TV and we did play outdoors.
Q. You’ve played but never played outdoors with 70,000 fans?
SUTTER: I think there were a million fans.
Q. In your minds anyway, right?
SUTTER: \Yeah
Post-practice quotes from Sharks coach Todd McLellan here.
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