October 7 morning skate quotes, video

Colin Fraser, on practicing transitions on Sunday, and where improvement is needed:
I think we just need to do things better. I think maybe in Minnesota we squeaked one out there, didn’t play as well. In Winnipeg we played well, at least at the start. I think we stayed the same, and they kind of raised there game, and we didn’t raise our game. So it’s not a matter of changing things. It’s a matter of doing things better, and you‘ve got to be able to raise that bar a little bit while in the game. If they turn it on, you’ve got to kind of push back a little bit, and we weren’t able to do that against Winnipeg.

Fraser, on Darryl Sutter’s game day focus:
‘Game day’s game day,’ he always says. Do whatever it takes to get ready. Everybody has their own way of getting ready, but at the end of the day you’ve got to be ready for 7:30 tonight. Definitely all of the Sutters are intense guys. I mean, it’s no secret. Game day for sure, he comes in with a little more of a snarl than on other days.

Drew Doughty, on whether there’s a “different feeling” heading into this season:
I don’t know if there’s a different feeling, but we’re happy to have all those guys back. We need those guys. They’re experienced veterans in this league. I think Mitchie would’ve been a big help going into that Chicago series last year. I think with him we would’ve been a lot better. We could’ve even defended that Cup again. Even though we’re not the defending champs, we still see that Cup as part of us, and we want to get it back. That’s our main goal, to finish with home ice advantage in the regular season, and then going into playoffs, we want to win that Cup again. It’s still kind of the same feeling. We want it back.

Doughty, on realistic championship aspirations not having been a part of Kings season preparations several years ago:
No. And now it is, and it should be. We won it for a reason. We were a good team. We had a bad start to that season, and we gelled late, and we have pretty much all those same guys on this team, still. We have that core group that can lead the way. That’s exactly what we need to do. We feel like we can be the best team in the league as long as we play our game and work as hard as we can to play our systems properly. I think that we have a good shot once again.

Doughty, on Darryl Sutter’s game day focus:
He’s quite a bit different on game days versus a practice day or outside the rink. Game days he’s intense. He doesn’t want any messing around. It’s business. Right now, when we got to rink this morning, it’s already thinking about the game tonight, studying our opponent, being prepared for every single possibility that could come to us during the game. He’s intense, and he’s going to make sure that you’re ready to go, too.

Darryl Sutter, on the penalties taken during the road trip:
Three O-zone penalties, three D-zone penalties in the first game, which is too many, and then in Winnipeg, obviously, I didn’t like Greener’s penalty to start the third. That was a tired penalty, really, in the period, and it shouldn’t happen. That made it 3-1. We were still playing well, but you just can’t take them.

Sutter, on what he remembers from his first game coaching the Kings:
I don’t remember much, to tell you the truth. You’re more familiarizing yourself video-wise coming in than actually with the team. [Reporter: I know you said you were watching a ton of games, anyway.] Well, it’s not like you’re unfamiliar with the team, right? It’s just you’re unfamiliar with knowing the players. The only guys I was really familiar with were guys that were division guys, and most of that was Stolly and Greener from Edmonton. Didn’t know personalities.

Sutter, on his reaction when a coaching colleague is fired three games into the season:
The team didn’t make the playoffs last year. You don’t make the playoffs…it’s not because of ‘three games in.’ And you’re a high-profile team, it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, we’re rebuilding,’ or ‘Our goal is going to try and make the playoffs.’ That’s the out clause, always. When you’re a team that’s always wanting to do all of that, it’s the pressure from up top.