May 19 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the penalties and the outcome of Game 3:
“Not happy taking that many penalties. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the calls or not. It doesn’t really have any impact on anything.”

On whether he’s surprised that there were a glut of penalties called late:
“They’re calling stick fouls and they’re calling penalties that they think are automatic calls. Nothing surprises me.”

On the benefits of returning to Los Angeles between Games 3 and 4:
“Trying to get some guys healed up. It’s not easy. The more time gives the player more time.”

On the top line’s lack of production:
“Which is our top line? [Reporter: The Kopitar, Brown, Williams line.] Well, Richards’ line has produced more in the playoffs than Kopi’s line, so it’s who you like most is your top line. I don’t think you can get by with a “top line” – one top line. I think we’re playing against a team with two top lines, and we need our two top lines, without having our top checking centerman, we need those two lines to be very productive, and I think if I look at the series, just thinking about it, I think we’ve scored four even strength goals, and I think Richards’ line has scored three and Lewie and Tyler’s scored one last night. So that’s four in the series.”

On the Kopitar line:
“I just said, if we’ve scored four even strength goals in the series, and they haven’t scored one, then I’d say that we expect more.”

On what Kopitar’s line needs to do, other than putting “the puck in the net”:
“It’s tough to score in playoffs. It’s a lot tougher. There’s not much space out there, and you’ve got to be a great competitor and you’ve got to be willing to put the puck at the net and you’ve got to be willing to go to the net.”

On Quick’s frustration at the end of Game 3:
“Generally teams talk about in playoffs, especially when they’re the Conn Smythe winner on the defending champion team, I’m going to assume if I was coaching against them, that I’m going to say shoot lots because percentages, give us your better chance and get as much traffic as you can. So I think San Jose has that mindset, as St. Louis did last series because both teams, if you look at it, five-on-five during the season did not have a goals-for potential, so you’re trying to get your team to shoot more, and you’re trying to get players to go to the net more. I think that the last series, there was some contact made with Jonathan and in this series there is. [Reporter: Do you share that frustration?] No, I think he’s got to handle that. He can’t be frustrated. That’s a byproduct of being a great goaltender.”

On Tanner Pearson’s debut:
“I thought he was fine. I mean, we were trying to get a few more minutes out of him, obviously, than we got out of who we had in before. Just as the game worked out, because of the way the third period was with penalties and so forth, we didn’t use him. The shifts he got, he played fine. I said it after the game. What’s the big deal? He’s played in bigger games than that. He represented his country at World Junior last year as a significant part of it. So I don’t think that last night’s game would’ve any bigger for him than those.”

On using Trevor Lewis at center:
“We used several different players at several different positions, including Lewie.”

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