April 21 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On what he’s seeing from the team’s mood:
We’ll play better tomorrow. It’s not like there was a death in the family or something.

On whether Los Angeles has been challenged by San Jose’s speed:
Well, I thought that our third and fourth line and our fifth and sixth defensemen could match up better against their third and fourth line. It hasn’t happened yet.

On whether he’s concerned in the manner of the losses:
No. I mean, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the score is, does it? You’re down two-nothing in the series. Been there, done that. Won being down two, and I’ve lost being down two. As I said, if our role players, and if we can show the tenacity that their role players are showing, then we have a chance. Otherwise, we don’t.

On whether he’s going to look for different line matchups in Game 3:
We got every matchup on earth last night [that’s] possible, if you do it. I think Kopi played against everybody, and Jeff played against everybody. That was not an issue. Any of those matchups haven’t been a problem in the series. The problem has been when their…guys who work hard and are trying to prove something going forward out there, we haven’t matched up against that. That’s clear. [Reporter: Is it a story in itself to see their bottom six do that to your bottom six?] That;s the problem for us last year, too. Our fourth line – we didn’t have a fourth line last year, and it’s been a moving target this year, and it’s been a moving target in the first two games.

On whether he has considered moving Jeff Carter back to center:
Yeah, we did it quite a bit last night. When we went with 11, that was a big reason why. I talked to Kopi and Jeff, quite honest, and it didn’t affect minutes at all, but it affected who they were with, and quite honest, Carter was really effective. I thought he was really good last night. Really strong, didn’t matter who he was with.

On whether it’s “puzzling” that the Kings have allowed so many goals through two games:
I think trading chances with a team that’s a high-end offensive team is not a good idea, and that’s not a team function. That’s a three-or-four-guy thing. We’re going to buy into playing the right way and playing the way you have to play, or you’re going to have trouble beating San Jose.

On whether the Kings will utilize four full lines in Game 3:
You know what? We’ll see how the defense is tomorrow. 11 forwards worked really well for us last night. It didn’t affect nothing. I thought that of the two games, that was by far the best our forwards have played. We’ll see a couple guys in the back end that are – it goes back to your question about defensemen having to check, too.

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