June 5 practice quotes: Sutter, Clifford, Greene

Darryl Sutter, on why the team has been so successful at home, yet has struggled on the road:
“We’ve only played three games in this series. Give the other team credit, in Game 1. We didn’t play really well in Game 2. Unfortunately, our business is about the score. So I base it on performance, not score, more than anything, that way we stay in the right place all the time. You can play really well and lose. The questions are always, You didn’t do this, you didn’t do that, right? Doesn’t matter.

Sutter, whether he was hoping for any particular ruling with Duncan Keith:
“You know what, I moved on right after the game. Had my feelings on it, I think I’m correct. After that it doesn’t matter, to be quite honest, it never has.”

Sutter, on how Jeff Carter is today:
“Awesome. I wish I was Jeff Carter today.”

Sutter, on how Mike Richards is today:
“You know what? Guys just got here at 11. Kind of circling the wagons. We’ll know as we go along. Just talked to him for 30 seconds. [Reporter: What kind of progress did he make yesterday?] Light workout. Whether that’s progress or not… I talked to him for a minute after the game. More interested in the fact we won than how he was feeling.”

Sutter, on whether he thought Jonathan Quick would be affected by Game 2:
“No. Obviously he’d love to have a couple of those goals back. But he parks and rides pretty easily.”

Sutter, on Justin Williams’ postseason contributions:
“I think he had a really good start to the St. Louis series. As the series went along, that series went along, he really struggled. I think the travel, just the way the series was, it was a tough, hard series that wore him down. He’s one of the older guys on the team now. Even though he’s, what is he, 33, I think it took its toll on him. We didn’t have much of a reset between that and the San Jose series. He measures his game, a lot of it, on his offensive opportunity part of it. I think he wasn’t getting what he wanted. He was a frustrated player. I think there’s times that that trickles into parts of the game that was not productive for the rest of the team. You have to watch how you use him. I think he’d be the first one to tell you, again, that he didn’t play the way he wanted in Chicago in Game 1. We’re making a big deal out of it today because he had a good first period last night. We need him to play like that every night.”

Kyle Clifford, on whether there’s a “sigh of relief” to get the first win of the series:
“Yeah, definitely. I think we knew it was going to be a big game tomorrow. It was one of those must wins. Kind of get the ball rolling for us. We know we got a little bit better and getting ready for tomorrow night.”

Clifford, on whether the Kings “imposed their will” on Game 3:
“Yeah, I think we came out with a really good start. That’s what we wanted. The first two games in Chicago, we didn’t necessarily do that. Kind of got the confidence going for us a little bit with a good start. We played pretty physical. It was a good thing for us.”

Clifford, on Patrick Sharp saying he’d be willing to fight Justin Williams:
“Willie is pretty tough undercover. I wouldn’t mind seeing that.”

Clifford, on continuing to show resilience in a grinding postseason:
“We went through it last year, so we know what to expect. Being mentally tough throughout our lineup, our whole team is like that. We know we’re going to have bumps and bruises. We’re battling through it and focusing on winning games.”

Clifford, on avoiding retaliation to plays that impacted Mike Richards and Jeff Carter:
“Yeah, well, I think within the rules, we got to take care of those guys. We don’t want to be running around looking for situations that are going to get us penalties. Special teams are pretty big in the playoffs. Like I said, we have to be mentally tough and battle through it.”

Clifford, on Chicago’s penalty killing strengths:
“They don’t give you a lot of time and space. They get on you quick. They got guys that make sure the pucks are cleared. We got to get a little more traffic on Crawford, get pucks to the net.”

Clifford, on the team’s fatigue factor:
“I feel pretty good. I mean, start of [June] here. We’ve been playing for quite some time. Our team’s conditioning is pretty good, too.”

Clifford, on an explanation for the team’s play at home:
“I think we just come out and we always have great starts. That kind of gets us going early on. Trickles throughout the game.”

Clifford, on how Jeff Carter is doing:
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s good.”

Clifford, on the team’s attempts to find success in the neutral zone:
“We have to frustrate their top players. Last night we did a good job. We can still do a better job at it. They like that rush type game. Stay tight in the neutral zone, make sure they don’t get too many chances, make sure we’re getting pucks deep and make sure we’re not having too many turnovers in the neutral zone.”

Matt Greene, on whether the team is unhappy with the Carter-Keith altercation:
“Yeah, but you can’t dwell on it. We’re here to win games, not worry about what happened in the past, what got called. That’s it. Our focus has to be going into Game 4.”

Greene, on what the referee had said to him following the incident:
“He said it’s a judgment call whether it’s an intent to injure. He didn’t think it was. So it’s a four minute penalty. That’s it.”

Greene, on the pressure to retaliate after seeing a teammate hurt:
“No, you’re upset obviously. You got to play within the rules. You got to play a hard game. Our whole mentality is to play a physical, grinding game, to be hard on their skill guys. That’s our game plan. Everyone knows that. You have to do it within the rules. If you’re going to let that get into your head, answer back with something illegal, you’re going to hurt your team. You can’t do that. You have to be worried about playing our game, doing what we can to get wins here.”

Greene, on whether there’s a “sigh of relief” to get the first win of the series:
“You got to play well at home. You got to come out in front of your fans and put on a good show. Obviously want to carry that over to the road. We want to get a big start here coming in tomorrow night. We also got to keep continuing that. Like I said, they’re a good team. It’s just about keeping pace in that series right now.”

Greene, on how last year’s experience helps the team this year:
“Experience helps, you know. A lot of guys, been in Western Conference Finals before. Pretty much our whole team has. Now it’s just time to deliver on that, use that experience to help us out.”

Greene, on whether he changes his game when playing with Muzzin or Martinez:
“Not much. Both are good players. Both are really good puck movers. It’s pretty much playing the same way. I’ve played with both of them enough now that it’s a pretty easy transition.”

Greene, on impressive aspects of Tyler Toffoli’s game:
“Just his ability to get pucks to the net. There’s a lot of guys, you see them when they come up, just the puck finds them. They have a great way of getting the puck back to them. He’s a guy that does that really well. That’s definitely a skill that a lot of guys don’t have, find the puck, get a good shot off. The majority of the time it’s not easy to do. He’s finding a way to do it a lot. It’s a skill that he’s worked a lot on.”