January 28 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the power play struggles:
We had good chances to score last night. Keep getting chances, we’ll score.

On Kyle Clifford seeing several shifts alongside Anze Kopitar:
He played three or four shifts with him. It was basically Clifford played with Stoll and Lewis and King played with Kopitar.

On Matt Greene’s impact on Monday’s win:
I think those three guys were really good for us. Willie and Robyn and Greener all played really solid games. Played more in their identity that they have to play in, their role. [Reporter: I know you said you had kind of been playing all the way through, but was that the most significant upgrade from the past games, those three guys, and the way that they played?] Not really. I mean, being able to use everybody, obviously with our schedule, is more important. We still didn’t get that out of some forwards last night. You need the balance in your minutes, very simple, but you need the performance, too.

On how the travel has affected the team:
Brutal. [Reporter What’s the most dramatic thing that you’re seeing, just fatigue?] No rest, no practice, no energy. We don’t lose games because of effort. I’ll put it that way. I think you see us always push back and push through, but sometimes your top guys don’t have the energy to do it. It was evident on the power play last night – guys like Kopi and Jeff and Drew – as much as they want to do it, it’s hard minutes for ‘em.

On Phoenix evolving towards a spread out team that relies on mobile defensemen:
They play a spread out game. It’s not the defensemen. Like, Ekman-Larsson is a year older. So it makes him a year better. He’s an elite player in the league, so it’s another dimension to their game. And then, obviously the addition of Ribeiro – if you do it actualy, if you watch their team, and you actually look at numbers, it’s really clear that they went from being a top-five defensive team to a bottom-five defensive team. They went from a bottom offensive team to scoring three goals a game. It’s based on the addition of two players.

On whether he’ll “bring Quick back” against Phoenix:
Yeah, he’s rested and didn’t have a lot last night, and he wants to play, so that’s who plays. I mean, Quicker hasn’t had a tough schedule.

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