Quick describes open dialogue with Sutter

There were interesting quotes from Darryl Sutter last week and earlier today about his ongoing conversation with his players, and methods in which he communicates and maintains an open dialogue with members of the team’s leadership group.

After today’s practice, I spoke with Quick about his conversations with Sutter, and how it relates to his workload and whether he is used during both ends of back-to-back sets.

“He usually has a good idea of what he wants to do, and he’ll talk it over with me,” Quick said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been one to talk him out of an idea. He knows how I feel on the subject. Every game I’m willing to play. You never want to sit out as much as sometimes you might need the little bit of rest. You never want to be on the bench.”

Quick, on whether back-to-back sets help him prepare for the intensity of the playoffs:
I think every game helps you. You play, what was it, Monday –Tuesday last week? You play Monday in Philly, and now you feel like the rink you’re playing in and the team you’re playing against, it’s a bit like a playoff atmosphere. You get on the bus, and that game’s over, and then you’re starting fresh. Every game you play, it prepares you for what’s ahead.

Quick, on whether the dialogue with Darryl Sutter is more or less open than other coaches he has played for:
That’s tough for me to say, just because with the other coaches I was a lot younger and new in the league, so I wasn’t kind of involved in those discussions at all. I’ve been on the team for a few more years now, and now I find myself in the situation where I’m being asked questions about certain things. I don’t know if that’s because of the way he approaches a team, and he wants older guys and the leaders of the locker room if he wants their input, or if it’s more so that over the past few years that I’ve become one of the older guys. But I certainly do see [that] he likes getting the input of guys and how we feel about certain situations. Whether it’s something as small as what time a meal is or what we want to do on forecheck, backcheck, stuff like that.