September 23 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Slava Voynov’s 32-plus minutes in Arizona last night:
All told, if there’d have been no goals scored on special teams, there would’ve been about 28 minutes in special teams, which is half the game. Robyn was getting stitched up, so he missed part of the second period, so Slava was the guy that just played. [Reporter: I didn’t know about that. Is Regehr OK?] Oh yeah. It’s preseason. Doctors are a little slow. [Reporter: The doctors need the preseason too to get their stitching up to par?] Three stitches took almost the whole second period. That’s not a good thing if I’m going to the clinic.

On what he liked about the game in Arizona:
It was a good pace. Both coaching staffs said the same thing, both teams. We were really good in the first period, and special teams were a second period deal, and the third period we were good.

On how Mike Richards performed:
Hard. The veterans on both sides played really well. We kind of set them up for this game, and they all pretty much know their schedule, what’s going to happen in training camp. As long as they’re 100%, then they kind of know their schedule, which games they’re going to play, so it works good.

On whether cuts are coming:
Some of the kids this morning, if we can get ‘em back to play juniors. The Western League and the Quebec League have both started, and the Ontario League hasn’t. We don’t have anybody going back to the West. We have a lot of guys going to Ontario, and one for sure, Quebec. So get ‘em back, play games. I don’t like those kids missing games if they can’t keep up in this camp. It doesn’t make sense.

On the widened hash marks in the attacking zones:
The hash marks give you zero advantage offensively. We’re trying that out because that’s what they use in the Olympics. Well, the top teams in the Olympics score fewer goals per game than the NHL. That rule, to stretch those hash marks out, the defending team has a bigger advantage because the defensemen have more time to get the puck out of the zone. Where they put the hash marks offensively, on the offensive side, well that’s where you lineup anyways now. So what’d they put that for?…[Reporter: Are they trying to get away from the jostling and then have to stop it?] There’s very little of that. They kick guys out for that in the defending zone. There’s more jostling in the neutral zone, if you look on the faceoffs. There’s very little [in the attacking zones]. They put that in, that rule, faceoff interference. [Reporter: And that trapezoid being wider, did they say ‘why we did this?’] That foot there, it never happens that a goalie goes there. They didn’t widen it down there.…It will have no bearing. [Reporter: They did something just to do something, it sounds like.] Basically, somebody wanted it right out, and somebody wanted it smaller. [Reporter: What were you doing during the dry scrape? Are you talking to the guys? I mean, it’s like an eight minute stretch where there’s no action.] It shouldn’t be eight minutes. It should be a four-minute scrape. It takes the very same to do the ice as it does for those guys to screw up doing three laps up and down. It’s no difference. It’s no difference. You can watch it. It takes four minutes. The same thing it takes them to go up and down and screw around. They’ll do the same thing anyways. They’ve got to go over and do their laps, so do the whole ice so that it’s for overtime. [Reporter: They had a new lighting system in last night at Staples. It was much brighter on the ice.] Well, we practiced there. It’s like going to the store and buying the curly bulbs. You notice the difference, right? It’s the same thing. [Reporter: They said that it’ll throw off less heat.] You know what? If it‘s more efficient, then we should all be doing it. It’s like when we go to the store, they tell us not to buy the bulb. Buy the curly. So if that makes it more efficient and doesn’t affect players’ vision or line- [Reporter: There were some shadows last night, but they’ll probably tinker with it and straighten that out.] I didn’t mind when we were practicing. I don’t know if it’s a bluer light or what it is, but you could see it when we were down there. You could tell that something had changed. [Reporter: It was very obvious at center ice, particularly, towards the edges. Didn’t you think there were some shadows? But at center ice, it was glaring.] I’ve got to think that it’s not going to affect hockey at all and the players…But I don’t think it’s going to affect their performances at all. You’d have to talk to basketball and see. It obviously has to be approved.