The Los Angeles Kings did not hold a morning skate at Joe Louis Arena. Darryl Sutter spoke with the team’s traveling media following meetings at the team hotel Wednesday afternoon.
On whether Dustin Brown’s uncertain availability makes preparation difficult:
“Nope, not really. We have extra players.”
On how the Kopitar line would be filled should Brown not be able to go:
“Kopitar played with Richards and Carter last night.”
On his interpretation of Dustin Brown’s hit on Jason Pominville:
“I think the player skated into Brownie. The puck’s on the wall. Very simple, and you defend yourself. It’s not ‘skating into Pominville.’ Pominville’s skating into him. He didn’t identify his head as a target, that’s for sure. I’m sure the media makes a big deal out of it, so they have to look at it.”
On whether there’s any concern about playing Matt Greene on back-to-back nights:
“I was concerned on how he played last night. He wasn’t very sharp, and conditioning was clearly a factor against a fast team. So, it’s trying to decide whether if it’s better to put him in back-to-back. I’m not concerned about back-to-back because he was hurt. If he was hurt, to hell with him. He ain’t going to play, period. It’s what I said before – if he was healthy, if he was cleared for contact, then he’s going to have to play some games to see if he’s up to a high enough standard so that we can use him in the playoffs. Obviously, last night it wasn’t for him, so we have to decide whether it’s better to give him a day and see if one more game helps him, or if you give him two games to help.”
On whether playing immediately is good for the team, considering the loss last night and L.A.’s play on the second night of back-to-backs:
“We’ve got to play the games [that are] on the schedule, so what it difference does it make ‘is it good’? I mean, we’re playing tough opponents, and we’re playing teams – I think this is the fifth game in a row that the team is literally in a desperate mode, and we’re in a mode where we’re trying to get ready for playoffs. It’s not anything else. It’s like when Daryl [Evans] talks about Matt Greene. That’s what I’m trying to do with 12 other guys, see if they can help us or not or where they’re going to fit or if they should play or how much they can play. It’s kind of what we’re doing.”
On whether facing desperate teams is an adequate simulation for playoff hockey:
“It’s way better to be playing teams that are still fighting for a spot or in a spot than not, because you get players on other teams that are just maybe fighting for jobs, and it gets a little reckless or out of hands, and you’d prefer not to play those teams, and that’s why you see teams that always where you say, ‘oh, they’re playing the spoiler role.’ Well, they don’t really care about the spoiler role. They’re trying to keep a job in the league.”
Rules for Blog Commenting
Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.
Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.