Sutter wants “big goals” from power play

After scoring twice on the man advantage against Ottawa, the Kings went 0-for-13 on the power play in their four game trip through Carolina, Florida Tampa Bay and Nashville. The statistic looks worse than the reality in this case, as the power play showed good movement and generated quality opportunities throughout most of the trip, and Darryl Sutter appeared pleased with the looks the Kings were generating.

On Friday, Sutter discussed what he is looking for on the power play, and it’s similar to what he wants in key penalty killing situations: overall special teams success isn’t as important as special teams timeliness.

Darryl Sutter, on the power play getting good looks, if not consistent goals:
Just got to score big goals, that’s all. I think the top power play has got about seven or eight goals, and we have, what, five or six? We had a chance – even in the game in Tampa, the game we lost – the power play scores a goal…we thought we got the short end of it. We had a goal that shouldn’t have been disallowed that would’ve made it 2-1. There’s times where our power play could’ve tied it up, and then we gave up a bad goal. So your power play’s got to score big goals. You guys know how I feel about the percentages and all that, and that’s, quite honest, for some guys who don’t watch the game. [Reporter: It’s more ‘when.’] Yeah. It’s big goals. Very simple. If your power play scores you a big goal that [gives] momentum…quite honest, it’s very similar to penalty killing. If your penalty kill gets you a big kill at some point in the game, then it’s more important than the stat.

Sutter, on any power play red flags, and continuing to work on the power play:
Well, we do work on it a lot…I think that Carter leads our team in shots. We’re trying to get the puck on his stick as much as [we can]. We’re doing that. I think that Kopi and Drew press once in a while a little bit too much on it. But we like Doughty and Voynov and Kopitar and Richards and Carter.