March 5 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On being in the tough situation of a tight playoff race before:
It’s not a tough situation, and I’ve been there before and it should be a playoff race for every team with 20 games to go. That’s why you play 82 games. [Reporter: But how do you like your chances?] Do I like the chances? [Reporter: Yeah.] Yeah, I like our chances. [Reporter: You don’t feel like you guys are playing with fire since a few years-] The league’s really close. We’vebarely made the playoffs every year that I’ve been here, so hopefully we’ll barely make it again.

On whether the amount of hockey the team has played is draining, without looking at it as an excuse:
Yeah, it’s not an excuse, but it is a fact, not just last year. We’ve done it three years in a row. We’ve played ‘til late June and basically I’ve said it, and unless you went through it, you don’t know anything about it. Very few teams do it three years in a row. Very few teams do it two years in a row, and we’ve done it three years in a row, and we’re trying to get in the same way we’ve always done it. Work our asses off. [Reporter: Even you, can you be tired because of all those games?] No. Why should I be? [Reporter: Mentally you’ve been coaching a ton of games the last years.] No, that’s why you coach, though. Some guys coach one or two years in their whole careers and never get one playoffs game, so I try and do it every year.

On whether Trevor Lewis’ production is a reward for his hard work:
You know what? It’s good to see Trevor with some offense in his game, meaning numbers, not just offense in terms of shots or scoring chances. It’s good to see him get some numbers and be able to use him a little bit more in situations like that. I’ve said it a lot that it’s really hard to play in this league now, play guys – forwards – double digit minutes if they’re not producing offensively. It’s really hard. If you’re a four or five-goal scorer and you expect to play, you’re not going to play too many minutes. Something that we’ve learnt as a team the last three or four years, we’ve won the two Cups and..going to the conference finals, and if you look at it, there are some guys who are still on our team who didn’t play very much, if you look at it by games and all that. So hopefully those guys like Trevor – not hopefully – I know that a guy like Trevor has learnt a lot from it, and I know when Dean talks about the younger players and the development- [Reporter: The Nolans and Cliffords-] Yeah, like those guys. Well, that’s where we’re going to learn the most about those guys is at playoff time, and that’s where I’ve learnt the most about them, and that’s how they’ve gone up and down in their minutes. That’s an advantage that we’ve had is to be able to put guys in situations like that.

On call-ups being “a phone call away” when Ontario becomes an AHL team next year:
I think it’s a huge advantage to the big team, always, to have players closer, especially when you have time zones and the multiple connections, it’s always better. It’s not so much that they’re close that you get to see them, it’s close so that you can get ‘em quicker.

On what he has liked about Jordan Nolan:
I think we’re looking for Jordan to complete the power part of his game. I think that it’s something where he’s had trouble staying in the lineup when we are healthy, and it’s not unlike a lot of other young players, but when you’ve had the opportunity to be included in a winning environment, then you should take the next step forward. And that’s what the organization is expecting out of Jordan.