April 26 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether he expects the series to evolve to lower-scoring games:
You know what? I don’t know. Hopefully we score a lot more than them. I think what we’re seeing in the playoffs, though is that scoring’s been up a little bit in the eight series, but if you look at it, save percentages are down, so I think everybody’s looking for the bigger save or fewer shots against, those things. [Reporter: Darryl, why has the offense gone up in the playoffs?] Cause I just said save percentages are down. [Reporter: So it’s the goaltending you see as the main reason?] Well, maybe save percentages are pucks being not cleared in front of the net or bad rebounds. No, I wouldn’t say that.

On Justin Williams’ performance in big games:
I think he’s got the experience, and lots of it. I didn’t even know that stat until last year in the playoffs about his…Game 7 winning goals. He’s a veteran who’s played in two different organizations that have won Cups. He’s played a lot of situations. He plays power play. He gives you good minutes. He’s a good player, Justin Williams.

On Anze Kopitar’s improvements:
First off, I think the playoff experiences have helped him the last two [years]. You know, when you play that many series, and you have to play that many minutes, I think when you’re a really top player and you’re a smart player, I think that you learn to manage parts of the game better in terms of maybe you’re going out a little bit tired on a shift, or you’re starting a period, or you’re finishing a period, or it’s a four-on-four or a faceoff where you’re directing traffic a little bit more. I think all those things come with experience, and I think with Kopi, a big part of the Kings being successful the last two or three seasons, if you remember…when he broke he broke his ankle and didn’t play, he probably learned a lot by watching it, too, and then taking the next step where you go deep in a playoffs and become an important part of it. I think that probably if you ask Dean, the big part when they got Mike that summer after that, they wanted probably… – not of so much on Kopi, because you had Jarret – to give some more balance of that. We’re talking about Kopi because he’s nominated for the Selke, right? So you talk about Jonathan Toews and Bergeron. Well, I bet if you go to Boston and talk about Bergeron, right there is the centerman that’s right there with him, and if you go to Chicago, you’re talking about that next layer of guys that’s right there with him. So you don’t do it without balance. Hey, look at the team we’re playing, how good they are in the middle of the ice. They can move Pavelski to wing, and now that Couture has become that next guy with Joe Thornton. So it makes a big difference.

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