November 17 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter

On what stood out on a 3-0-1 road trip:
Well, we scored big goals. Even tonight, it’s the very same as the Buffalo game when you look at it. It’s one-nothing, and you’re thinking, ‘Jeez, we’ve got to score the second one.’ We had all those great opportunities. Hey, the difference tonight was clearly the five-on-threes. I mean, what was the second period? Six minutes there of penalty killing.

On Ben Scrivens’ performance:
I think he just had to be solid tonight. As I said, it was very much a team game, and you kill penalties – it wasn’t like we took bad penalties – and when you kill those penalties, that’s a group thing.

On whether Tyler Toffoli gave the team a lift:
Yeah, I thought he was better tonight than he was in Jersey.

On what “came through” in the team’s penalty kill:
I don’t think any one thing ‘came through.’ You’re trying to deny top guys creating opportunities, and we got in some shooting lanes and we got pucks down the ice. We were able to clear pucks, which allows us to change. The toughest part on penalty killers – we played four in six, so really this was the tough part, and when you’re using probably three or four defensemen and Willie [Mitchell had the one penalty…and you’re using primarily five or six forwards. So that’s the toughest part.

On whether he could see the distinct kicking motion on New York’s disallowed goal:
No, but…we trust some of them guys, and Lewie right away was saying it was kicked in…And Dennis LaRue, he waved it off – like, he went right from the top of the circle. One referee’s job is to point at the net, not meaning that [it was] a goal…He pointed at the net. So that’s…the call that was made. He pointed to the net. But then Dennis waved it off all the way, so that’s going to overrule anything that’s close. And Lewie…said right away that it was kicked in.

On the challenges of going 3-0-1 on a coast-to-coast trip:
Well, once you get here – we did the Carolina, Florida, Tampa, Nashville already once…You’ve got to build that into your game, and clearly you can’t have a short bench. You need lots of ammo sitting there.

On whether battling through injuries and adversity on the trip represents the team’s even keel approach:
Well, I wouldn’t want to take the top goal scorer from the conference last year for very long, and a number one goalie very long out of your lineup. But, you know what? If you find ways and you stay focused on one game, then our mantra from day one since I came here was “Park and Ride.” You win, you lose. It doesn’t matter. We play the same way.