March 9 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether Jeff Carter’s skill set is similar to Valeri Kamensky’s:
“Yeah, high speed skill set. Like, he can do the high speed. Really good shooter…that’s one thing about Jeff – on his stick, off his stick, which means you’re always in good position to do it.

On Carter’s natural goal scoring ability:
“With guys like that, he knows where his holes are, and if he’s with a guy that can get him the puck, he’s there. Everybody looks at Jeff, just because it’s outside and speed and all that, but really, most of his goals have come from between the dots and that triangle, where the goalie’s got to make a pretty good save.”

On whether he knows where Carter is going to shoot the puck:
“You look at the goals – like, he scores goals on his off side. It’s sort of like Jarome, where he scores goals on his off side. He’ll go up top, he’ll go low, where you’re just not seeing how he shoots it. And then around the net, he just scores where it’s natural. He’s scoring to score, not just [shooting] to shoot. Shooting to score, I like that – when you’re getting on guys to score on rebounds and all that instead of just another save. Like, he’s a hard guy to defend, I think, because it’s not that he’s perimeter, it’s not like he’s inside, it’s like those guys that they’re just going to compete to score. It’s not something you’ve got to learn. It’s something [that comes naturally]. And you know what, he’s confident and feels good. I give Jeff Carter lots of credit. He’s a really good role model for players, because when they talked about our team winning the Stanley Cup, and all that – when we got Jeff Carter last year, he was 199 pounds, and he trained like a son of a gun last summer. He’s 210 pounds. And you can say what you want, but he’s second in the league in goals. That means that he made that commitment…He’s like a greyhound, anyways. But…he’s one guy that made a huge commitment to getting better again. And that’s after leading the playoffs in goal scoring…He only had the six, seven-day training camp…We had never seen Jeff last year. We thought once we got Carter that it was like “turning our team around.” Carter only played a few games. He got hurt. He was questionable for Game 1 of the playoffs. Like, he never got healthy. We had never seen him.”

Whether Carter reminds him of anyone he had coached or played against:
“He’s a different type of player, but his hands are like Jarome, right? The thing with Jeff, you very rarely see him slap the puck. It’s like tick-tick. You probably see him backhand pucks more than you do slap pucks.”

On the lack of curve on Carter’s sticks:
“It’s nice to score and feel good about it, right?”

Whether Muzzin’s performance against St. Louis is an indication of the player he can be:
“We need him to…Because of injuries, he didn’t have to earn it. He got given it. He was one guy that he had given it and also earned it as he went along, instead of earning it and then [giving it]. He’s the other way. He’s giving it, and now he’s earning it…Hey, you know what? It’s still such a learning thing. Like, the other night, our penalty killing – and he hasn’t killed penalties very much. Martinez hasn’t killed penalties very much. Both of them make out of position mistakes. They get goals scored against him. But that’s part of playing these kids.”

On whether Muzzin has showed a lot since an early poor showing in Anaheim:
“Well, we needed him to. It’s not so much showing us a lot. It’s [that] he wasn’t very good. Most guys in that situation, if you had seven, eight defensemen, they’re going back to the American League. That’s a fact. That’s just the way it works, right?”

On finding a possession advantage against another good possession team:
“Possession doesn’t mean you always have the puck. Possession just means you’re not always chasing the puck. It’s a big change in the game the last few years. The dump and chase and all that is not part of the game anymore. Possession doesn’t mean you always have it, but you’re always in good position to get the puck back. If Calgary is a great possession team – put it this way: when you have high goals against, it doesn’t make you a great possession team. It means the other team’s got the puck. So when I harp about goals against, it’s not…defending on your heels, it’s about defending on your toes. When you break it down, it’s just zone time now. Teams that spend less time in their zone move the pucks out of their zone. It’s not so much the battle part and all that, it’s just less time in your zone. Most of the game is still played in the neutral zone, right? Because teams are well-coached. It’s easy to structure teams. It’s easy for Kelly to be in the right position as F1, me being in the right position, and then execute it…because that’s where most of the game is played. Calgary’s a good possession team when they’ve allowed their defense to activate in neutral [ice], and they force turnovers. They’re not a strong forecheck team, because that’s not their game. They’re not a big team up front. Their game is skill and speed.”

On Jonathan Quick’s body language in the Dallas game:
“He’s got to get the swagger back…As well as Bernie’s played and all that, the last guy that won us a game was Jonathan Quick. He came off the bench, won us a game. So, that to me is character…For a guy that’s used to [starting], that’s a character in battle. So that’s a really good thing.”