March 17 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether lower shot totals against suggest a renewed focus to suppressing shots:
No. Shot totals [against] go up when the bottom part of your order doesn’t hit. It’s true. It’s very true.

On only one player reaching 20 minutes of ice time last night:
Yeah, I didn’t like the length of shifts. Some guys stay on the ice too long, they hurt us, and it’s hurt us in the last couple of our losses. Lengths of shifts are too long, and it’s very easy for me to manage that because then you don’t get to play for two or three. [Reporter: Did they get the message?] Either they do or they don’t. It doesn’t really matter to me. Anybody who’s staying on the ice too long – there’s an odd shift where you can’t get off because the puck comes back in, or it’s a long change or something, but anybody’s who pushing over the 50 and it’s not a special teams situation, it’s hurting the team.

On seeing a player score his first NHL goal:
Yeah, it was cool. I was walking out with Mike Smith, though, after the game, and he said that [Andy] fanned on it. He said ‘we had a lot better chances than that,’ and he said that one fanned.

On an assertion that Andreoff “hasn’t played a lot this year”:
He’s played enough. He’s played every preseason game. He played, what, 15 games here, he played seven in the American League. He’s played enough. You know what? We’re trying to win. And I hear that, say, ‘oh, he’s a nice guy,’ or ‘oh, he scored a goal.’ We’re trying to win. Quite honest, there are a lot of organizations [in which] he would’ve played 65 games in the American League already. [Reporter: The question is how has he handled not being in the lineup every day, and has he made progress-?] He’d say he’s had a tough year. I mean, I wish someone would’ve paid me $700,000 to break a sweat for an hour a day. I don’t think it’s tough here. He should be very thankful being in the environment that he’s in. [Reporter: What was the top salary that you earned?] It was either 290 or 190 [-thousand]. But I can’t remember which one it was.

On those who believe that Jonathan Quick is not an “elite goalie”:
Well, that’s too bad. Basically, those are the people who don’t want somebody to do well. [Reporter: To prove their theories, yeah.] They don’t want somebody to do well. And now, with all this newfound data that you can use when you lose – instead of use when you win – it’s interesting. [Reporter: But did you see any difference in his game, or was it the team in front of him, I mean the chaos in front of him, on defense, and just working new people in?] … God, October, he was probably the best player in the league. I wouldn’t doubt that. You’ve got to remember, still, it’s like when you’re talking about the boy who scored his first goal last night. He’s played lots of exhibition games and lots of American League games. He’s played a lot of games, same as Jonathan Quick. Jonathan Quick’s had two major surgeries and played more games than any other goaltender in hockey in the last few years, but if you average it all out, who has the most wins? Jeez, I’d hate to think that at age 28 that he’s eroding.

On whether Andrej Sekera’s presence allows him to manage Drew Doughty’s minutes:
Yeah, a little bit. You know, three or four minutes is a lot, and you know what? You’re looking for the quality, not the quantity. Andrej can take some of those situations. We’re still using Drew, primarily if he’s not in the penalty box, on the first part of the penalty killing. So we haven’t used Andrej in that yet, but we kind of like Robyn and Drew to be in the first part, and usually for the most part, Muzz and Greener in the second one. So we’re not breaking up partners, but if one of ‘ems in the penalty box, then we go that way. I still think it’s an adjustment. I think that the schedule, I don’t think he was as sharp last night as he was in the prior three games. I think it’s an adjustment.