March 8 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the Kings fantasy camp:
“Last year – this is a true story – because they’re in for fantasy camp. These guys – it was a gameday – and I went to Ralph’s on the way home to pick up something to eat, and there were two guys with a grocery cart…full of beer and chips, and they started talking. I said ‘what the hell are you guys doing?’ ‘Oh, we’re here for fantasy camp.’ So they were getting their pregame in – beer and chips. It was right full of beer and chips. And they come every year – they’re from – I forget where they were from – like Vermont or somewhere…good time.”

On whether his ties to the Kings organization are strengthened through meeting alumni:
“Well, I enjoyed Lappy’s night, just because it was the role guy, the blue collar guy, which was pretty neat. Then, Kelly, obviously, I coached Kelly, so that’s different…The year I coached him was actually the last year of his career. It’ll be neat to see his family.”

On if he’ll have a message for Kelly Hrudey’s kids, after having spoken with Ian Laperriere’s kids:
“Well, they’re grown-up, beautiful girls now. They’re not going to look at an old guy with grey hair and take any info from me.”

On where he retains the closest ties to former players and other alumni:
“Oh, I think the Chicago guys for sure. Maggie (Keith Magnuson) was…instrumental around the league in all the alumni part of it. That’s why the Blackhawks one is still so strong, was [that] there are guys that are in Maggie’s age group now that are pretty successful guys in the Chicago area – Cliff [Koroll] and Stan [Mikita], Tony [Amonte]. So that was sort of my coming out, obviously, in Chicago. It’s always good to see all those guys I knew back there. It’s neat before the game, you’ve got sneaking into the coaches room, and after the game it’s awesome to see all those guys.”

On whether he has any added motivation to defeat Calgary, considering a Brenden Morrow assertion that Dave Tippett always wanted to beat L.A., having been an assistant coach there:
“No. I’ve moved past that a long time ago. Brenden Morrow’s only played for one team, right, and I would assume that Tippett [at the time] had only coached one team, too. I played and coached on several teams, and the older you get, the less [it matters]. It basically has no bearing on anything. It’s like talking about the alumni guys. I’ve got players on that team that are good friends of mine. So I’m not talking about Calgary. My only concern is the Kings.”

On whether Mikka Kiprusoff would ever spend the off-seasons in Calgary:
“No, he would always go home. His oldest boy’s in school now…so that’s why he stayed in Calgary during the lockout this year, because his son was in school.”

On Kiprusoff being “a man of few words”:

“Yeah. That’s why we had such a good relationship. Because we know what to expect. It’s not hard to figure out. Show up, gameday. Go hard, go home. Hey, you know what? He’s a great goalie. He gives them an instant chance again. The last time he took six weeks off in February or March, he went to Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final. If you look at it, same thing. The injury, the six weeks, came back. Gives them a chance.”

On Calgary being rejuvenated by Kiprusoff’s return:
“Top goaltending does do that for you. And, quite honest, Kipper – I’ll bet you, if you ask him tomorrow – he did not have the start of the season that he wanted. If you look at his numbers, they’re not wat he wanted, for sure. He’s at the age where he’s a proud guy and he’s a good competitor.”

On whether he saw anything in the video of the Dallas game that he hadn’t shared with the media last night:
“We watch video before every practice and after every game. It’s just sometimes you do it in small groups, sometimes you do it in big groups…Not really anything different, no. Just reinforce some areas that we haven’t been very good at off and on all year. So there are usually teaching moments that you can use. We were able to use that this morning.”

On his message this morning:
“We’re giving too many goals up. I said that after the game….You give up too many goals, you don’t win. You give up four goals against, you don’t win. If they’re great plays and all that stuff, wonderful. But it’s slipped into some of our younger players’ games, and we have to get it out of them. Get the mistakes out of their game again, and they’re easy mistakes to correct if they want to correct them.”

On whether Alec Martinez is getting better “game-to-game”:
Not necessarily last night. If it’s ‘game to game’, was it any better last night? No. Those two kids had a rough night. Their first four shifts on the ice there were two penalties, goals against. Penalty killing, goals against. I would say those are teachable moments. What’s the old line? When the students are ready to listen, then the teacher will talk. Otherwise, don’t.”

On whether the kids are ready to listen:
Jeez, we just won friggin’ eight out of 11. They must not have totally waxed up, have they? I think the earth is flat. And they look out over, the earth is flat, right?”

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