March 16 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the aspect of Kyle Clifford’s game that he liked the most:
“You know, I guess to answer it best would be ‘momentum change’, a little bit with the fight. It’s important. It doesn’t happen very often. You know what? I’ve said that about Kyle lots in the last couple of years, about doing a really good job at certain points of games, whether it’s a hit, fight, score, backcheck, hard play, right?”

On Jake Muzzin’s performance:
“I thought he was fine. I thought he passed up a lot of shots he could have taken. I never looked at the final numbers, but he probably had three or four really good opportunities where he could have shot, and he was probably being respectful.”

On Jonathan Bernier:
“Key moment, two-one, penalty shot.”

On Toffoli getting back to disrupt the breakaway that led to the penalty shot:
“You guys asked this morning about Tyler Toffoli, about what he was supposed to be or if he was a goal scorer…He’s a goal scorer, but he’s a guy who obviously knows the game because he’s a very good penalty killer, and even this year, in his first year in the American League, he’s scored shorthanded goals. So he knows the game. He’s supposed to do that. What do you mean, ‘did I like that?’ You’re supposed to do that, right? You’re supposed to backcheck. If you don’t backcheck, you play in the American League or you don’t play at all, or you play over-age in the Ontario League. That’s not ‘did I like it?’”

On the play leading to the penalty shot:
“Oh, jeez, well I didn’t know he was calling it. Actually, I thought he was calling the…tap on Jonathan. I forget who it was. Burish, I think…Glove save. Did he shoot it in his glove, or did he make the save?”

On Dustin Penner playing right wing on the fourth line and Jordan Nolan being out of the lineup:
“He’s played right wing lots in Edmonton, quite honest, and I’m trying to keep him in the lineup. Jordan Nolan is struggling a lot, playing only four or five minutes a game. When you put a kid in that’s only 20 years old into your lineup, you better keep Dustin in the lineup because depending on how the kid does, you’ve probably got to at some point move Dustin back up.”

On whether he’s seen a better Justin Williams over the past few weeks:
“The other night in San Jose, the line had 26 [shots]. It’s not about individuals. The line had 26 shots. That’s a lot. He’s a big part of that.”

On Williams saying that “his legs are there”:
“He’s got jump. He’s had it. The line’s been really good the last little bit. As I said, when you break it down, that’s hard to handle when it’s not just Kopi or not just Brownie or not just Willie. It’s three guys. They’re hard to handle.”

On what influenced the Kings’ 50 hits:
“The schedule’s really hard, and I could guarantee you, you wouldn’t have had five tonight after the games we’ve just played. You guys know who are traveling with us how hard it is. It’s not easy – when you say ‘physical’ or ‘hit’, we probably break it down and take a different look at it than what the sheet says. It’s more of just time and space and separate guys from pucks and get to loose pucks. That’s hard work to play good defense, and the schedule – I’ve said it – you know what, the schedule’s winning games and the schedule’s losing games. I’ve got to go, because my wife’s running the marathon. I’ve got to get her home.”

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