December 31 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether the game got away because of second period mistakes:
No, I thought we played really well. We got a little bit of a bad break on the second goal, and you know what? We’re not scoring any goals right now. We’ve played well enough to win. Other than the game before Christmas, we easily could’ve won the last three. It’s just the way it goes.

On playing a rival on Thursday with an attempt to end the losing streak:
I haven’t really thought about that. That’s two days away.

On what has to happen to reduce the number of penalties:
There were five penalties tonight, so what’s the same about any of them? What were they?…Drew got one trying to prevent a goal, Willie got one for shooting one out of the stands, Kyle got one in the neutral zone where he put his stick out. I mean, quite honest, do you think the penalties should’ve been five-two tonight, or could they have had one more? That’s what I was hollering at the referee about. We had one referee that we had last night in Chicago. He looked fatigued tonight. [Reporter: Is that typical to have a guy back-to-back?] Yeah, we get ‘em more in California back-to-back, just because there’s a closer schedule. It’s not very often when you see that Chicago-Dallas, but around the holidays maybe they’re trying to keep guys closer to where they’re from.

On any significance of having completed 41 games:
Yeah, we played 41 games in this year. That’s kind of cool how that works actually, when you think about it.

On Ben Scrivens’ performance:
You know what? Our goaltending’s leveled out. When you’re not scoring goals – we’re not a team that scores a lot of goals – you need more than average goaltending, and the second goal tonight’s not a great goal. Whether it’s off the boards, or whatever it is, you’ve got to make those. That’s part of what the best goalies in the league do.

On whether Mike Richards is struggling:
He was really good tonight. I think getting him with Brownie and Willie – you know what? Once we moved Jeff with Kopi, it was hard, and then basically Stoll went with Brown and Williams, and Mike was trying to get other guys going, and it probably took a little bit away from his game, and we’re not getting much in terms of opportunities from our third and fourth lines, so we put Mike back with Brownie and Willie, and he’s played really well.

On Dustin Brown’s scoring being “off”:
Yeah, it is off. He’s got seven goals in 41 games. So I’d say his scoring is off. Based on that, he’s a 14-goal scorer. That’s not enough, right?

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