March 18 morning skate notes: Darryl Sutter

On how Drew Doughty has evolved through his tenure:
He’s played more playoff games. He’s played more situations. He’s played with a younger defense, if you look at it, from the evolution of his partners. It was probably mostly Scuds – I don’t really even know. I think Scuderi, Mitchell, Robyn [have been his partners]. Now you’re putting three or four younger defensemen in there, so you’re expecting more out of him. He’s killing penalties now more than he ever has, which is important for young defensemen to learn how to kill penalties, and to want to take great pride in it. That’s something that’s still evolving in his game. If he was only playing 25 minutes, you wouldn’t talk about him playing 29 minutes, and that’s what he should be playing. What you’re looking for is, if you look into that group of a player, you’re looking at 25 quality minutes, and most of the guys are not just power play – they play both special teams, and that’s the group he’s in. [Reporter: In those 29 minutes, are they-] It’s too many minutes. I’ve said that a hundred times. I know keep asking, but it’s too many minutes. It doesn’t help productivity. For sure, it doesn’t. It might not affect you tonight, but it affects you tomorrow night. And it might not affect you at the start of the first period, but it might affect you at the end of the third period. There’s nobody in the league who should have to play that many and be expected to be productive. But, you know we’re in a position where we need him to be highly productive.

On whether Doughty’s game adjusts or evolves with who he’s on the ice with:
It surely shouldn’t, because it’s a team game. It surely shouldn’t. That’s like saying that somebody has to check and somebody doesn’t. I would think that to be on a good hockey club that everybody should have to check.

On this year’s season series versus Anaheim:
I don’t think we’ve played a whole 60 minutes, meaning not from a standpoint from the clock if you look at a whole 60 minutes, but a complete game from individuals, I think some players have had a really hard time against Anaheim. Some guys haven’t played much against Anaheim, some guys haven’t played in some situations against Anaheim. I think Kesler coming in there has impacted how they play down the middle against us, where Getzlaf’s minutes aren’t as heavy as they were, meaning it’s three or four minutes less against us, and that’s been an issue for us because Kesler’s been very effective. I mean, you’re still looking at it. You’re in the fifth game of playing them, and you have some players you’re still going to measure how they play against them, so that means that some of our guys haven’t played very well against them.