January 27 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the practice emphasis when the team goes nearly a week without a game:
Obviously we’ve been doing some video with the guys and trying to get up to speed today. Some teams have a couple days of practice, some have three, some have one. Just make sure that everybody’s up to pace more than anything.

On the impact of Tanner Pearson’s injury:
Basically, after the injury, we just looked at it like he was done for the year. When you break a bone, allow it to heal, when you’re incapacitated for that long, it’s not like you just come back, play when you heal. It’s no different than a shoulder or a knee. It takes guys a long time. [Reporter: He’d obviously been a big contributor. Do you look at just the rest of the team needs to help fill that gap?] Tanner plays left wing for us, so our left wingers are Gaborik, King, Clifford, Andy, and you just go through your left wings, and that’s who you’re pushing up. It’s not something to be decided over the break. That’s when he got hurt. We knew he was out for a significant period of time right away. Brownie can play left side, but right now we prefer him with Kopitar. Left wing. Kinger’s wants to play more, looks to play more, so he can handle some of Tanner. That’s the first thing I thought of, [that he could have] some of Pearson’s minutes. Actually, probably going in to when Pearson got hurt, King was probably playing more minutes. For sure, he was.

On whether the decision to play Dustin Brown alongside Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar is influenced by match-ups, recent play, or a combination of the two:
No, I think it’s the very same mindset as before where we prefer to play Carter at center, and Carter was playing [center]. But in the big picture, not just the whole organization, wants to play Carter at center ice. It’s where he should be. So that’s where he’ll play [Reporter: And, with that in mind, too, sometimes you have that option to play Williams there – and sorry for dealing with lineup-type stuff here – but if you could share, which times do you lean more on Brown on that side? What times do you lean more on Williams along those guys?] We’ve got to lean on who’s playing, not what their last name is. Who’s performing. We’re playing the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow night. It’s not about ‘who’ it is that we’re playing with Kopitar. It’s how they’re playing. A good explanation of that – just look at the team that’s leading the division and that’s been leading the league off-and-on when those two players are healthy. Kopi has to be our Getzlaf, and Gabby’s got to be our Perry. What are they asking Bruce Boudreau today? ‘Who’s playing with Getzlaf and Perry?’ Whoever’s performing. Pretty logical, just not easy to figure out. We’ve been doing it shift-by-shift, not game-by-game or practice-by-practice.