Sutter received an apology from Walsh; more quotes

The episode doesn’t really need rehashing, but what would have been a Justin Williams go-ahead power play goal in the second period of Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators was waved off because referee Ian Walsh blew the play dead after losing sight of the puck, which sat uncovered to the right of goalie Andrew Hammond. For those who have asked, the play is not reviewable (and will not be made reviewable); when a referee blows a whistle, the play is dead and anything that follows becomes moot.


the replay comes 42 seconds into this clip

While the Kings have moved on, Darryl Sutter said that Walsh, who also officiated the following night at Honda Center, offered an apology, a move that he respected, even if “it doesn’t do us much good,” as he noted. From Sutter’s pre-game media availability:

On the challenge to make the playoffs in the West, given teams’ improvements:
There’s more in it this late. That’s the diference from last year. You know what? I say it over and over and over how hard it is to make the playoffs, and that stuff about ‘dynasty’ and about ‘repeating’ and why teams don’t do it back-to-back, well, it’s because we have new rules, and somebody…who writes about it should figure it out, and it’s supposed to be like that. And I’ve said it, too. We should know that here beter than anybody that if you get in, you can win, and if you don’t, you can’t. That’s the way it works. One bad call, one bad injury, it’s all it is. One bad goal. That’s the difference in the teams. Look at the Ottawa game – one bad call. That’s a goal. They apologized to us several times, but an apology doesn’t do us any good. It should be one-nothing. [Reporter: And then you had the same guy the next night.] Yeah, and he apologized again. It doesn’t do us much good. Hey, I respect that, and thank you for being honest, but it doesn’t do us any good.

On how the four-in-five-and-a-half stretch affects how he uses players:
Well, it affected how we used ‘em in Anaheim, Jon, and it probably hurt us in the game. You know, we used some guys more than we should, and I think it also affected us in guys who turned the pucks over, not as sharp as they should’ve been, which resulted in D-zone time. If you look at lengthy shifts in the Anaheim game, how very seldom we have guys other than Drew or maybe somebody on the power play who’s over 50 seconds, when you have 10 or 11 guys who are over 50 seconds, usually you lose. It means you’re spending too much time in the D-zone. We have two or three guys who had extended shifts, and it really hurt us. So that’s how it affects you. When you can’t use your short bench, it looks good for a little bit, but if you use a short bench in the stretch of games that you’re in, you can say you’re close. And you need great goaltending. You need more than one. You need great goaltending…It needs to win you a game.

On Winnipeg shaping up as one of the league’s rising teams:
They’ve got a good record. Do the division. You have to align yourself in your division because you play most of your games in your division. You have to win two rounds in your division probably, so you have to align yourself in your division. So, Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville. I mean, everybody’s set up to build their team to beat Chicago. That’s what you have to do. It’s not to beat Los Angeles or beat Anaheim.

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