April 23 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On where the improvements in Game 3 took place:
Probably our better players played better. Our top guys played better last night. We played better, meaning a little more determination in our game,

On how he coaches the team to play more “desperate”:
I don’t think you coach any different than you would coming into Game 3, a home game last night. ‘Desperate,’ as long as it’s in the right track, is good.

On whether his message continues, or whether he relies on the leadership group:
Oh, I think the message is clear. It has to, with this group, come from me. [Reporter: Anything in particular, that when you see them this morning that you say to them that you can share with us?] Not really, no. That’s not what you do, and that’s not being secretive. Anything that I say becomes San Jose’, then, so that’s not what you do. They’re not doing that, we’re not doing that. That’s not the way it works.

On Mike Richards earning heavy ice time in Game 3:
That’s sort of going back to Jimmy’s question. I think Mike and Gabby for sure stepped their games up last night in terms of the compete and the determination, and I think that obviously for us to win a game against San Jose, there are going to have to be two or three more guys do that, too. That’s clear.

On whether Mike Richards has improved as the series has progressed:
No, I think last night was his best game. I don’t think he was very effective, as a lot of those top guys were in San Jose. The way it works is when you’re playing against a team that has their size and their skill and their experience, then there are challenges for top players, because you’re on the ice against top players for the most of the time. I know a lot was made of the role players and the fourth line guys in the first two games. That was because those guys had scored a goal – Raffi Torres and Mike Brown. If they hadn’t scored a goal, then you’d have said they were out there providing energy and crashing and banging, which, I mean, that’s what Jordan Nolan’s supposed to do, and Kyle Clifford’s supposed to do. We have those guys, they have those guys. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of matchups that become big guy against big guy, and we haven’t shown that throughout our lineup that we can do that.

On whether Drew Doughty has hit a new compete level:
I don’t think it’s new for Drew. I mean, he’s done a lot at a young age. He’s got to do for us what Vlasic does for them. When you do it with the teams, that’s kind of how you match it up. [Reporter: Because everybody always focuses on the sheer talent and instinct and ability, but you have to drag him off the ice, practically.] He wants to play. And that’s a good thing. I like those guys. I like when guys are trying to stay out there and are not trying to get off because of who’s out on the ice. They’re not trying to get off. He’s a guy that wants to go back out or not come off, and that’s a good trait to have. You know what? That’s what those great players, or those guys that win championships, or those guys who are a big parts of a team’s success. That’s why they’re like that. I mean, we can all sit there and watch and say, ‘Oh, he can really skate,’ or ‘He can really shoot,’ and all that, but there’s something else that’s special about top players that that’s why they’re all not top players, because there’s something else there.