December 19 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Thursday’s win over St. Louis:
Really, we played the way we wanted to play. We wanted to be a physical team, and the first two penalties – Cliffy’s was a penalty. I didn’t like [inaudible / door slam] Robyn, and Drew takes a slashing penalty. I obviously don’t want three in the first period, and they scored on two of ‘em, but I think our power play goal at the end of the first was the most important goal in the period because I thought we had a really good period. Other than that, it’s not always based on the score. You know what, if you keep your players in that mindset, you’re better off always.

On the importance of Marian Gaborik getting into the harder areas:
It’s huge. I mean, when it’s all said and done, those guys have to produce. Otherwise, you could say you played a good game. So that’s the way it works. That’s the star factor. [Reporter: Does that take pressure off other guys?] …The schedule is such you’re not going to get by on shortening your bench. You might win tonight, but you’re not going to win tomorrow night. Just because of the energy level and the execution part of it, it was something that we really tried to keep in focus here in terms of length of practice and pace and trying to do things right, and hopefully it proves [inaudible / door slams] in the end.

On an “unrelenting” practice, travel and game schedule:
I think for the most part, other than guys that are first year guys here, being Brayden and Jamie, the expectations of the group are all the same in terms of the off-ice and demands of what we want, and the quality of ice time…and getting their proper rest, things like that. I think other than those two guys, everybody’s pretty familiar. Just thinking about the guys who’ve been up and down in the last few years, being Tyler, Tanner, Jonesy – guys that are in and out of the lineup – Jordy, Cliffy – guys like that – to be able to make sure that they’re ready when we need ‘em.

On what he’ll be looking for early from Jamie McBain, should he play Saturday:
Just the structure of the game. The checking part of it’s critical. Even last night when you look at [it], even though it’s a 6-4 game, we checked, in terms of our structure in the three zones, we checked pretty well. When Jamie, Brayden, because they’re defensemen, when they see their ice time go down or their in and out of the lineup, it’s based on that. It’s based on their checking, for sure.

On Alec Martinez:
Marty’s been pretty solid. Even last night with Robyn going down, he plays both sides, and that to me is not easy to do, and I think when he gets off – and even last night he was a little bit off in some of the checking stuff and some of the detail that we were trying to have in our game – it’s probably more related to that than anything. It’s like I told him today that he’s got to get his left-handed scoop shovel out again. He’s played good. I mean, he shows up for work every day. Not just game day. He shows up every day, works at his game.