October 17 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On using the week to teach and prepare for Friday’s game:
Well, we were trying to reinforce a lot of systems play and when we have the puck and when the other team has the puck, trying to reinforce that. Hopefully it carries into games. It’s not something that’s a one-off or a one-game thing. You’re looking for it consistently over the course of the season so that it’s natural for players and instinctive for them instead of what’s right and wrong or ‘what should I have done’ or ‘what should I do?’ [Reporter: I know you’ve spoken about it a little bit before just about how with the team having played so much hockey over the last several years that it affected the practice schedule just a little bit in trying to keep guys fresh, if that’s a fair way to put it. Do you foresee any type of alteration or adjustment in the practice schedule this coming season with a couple new guys coming in and needing to go through the teaching and what you just said?] Not really. The guys coming in are veterans. I think the guys who don’t play very much, we need to get some more minutes out of them, and to get more minutes out of ‘em, they’re going to have to practice more and they’re going to have to practice better and they’re going to have to play better. That’s the reality. It’s got nothing to do with prior seasons. This is quite a different group in terms of the age of the back end and the experience of the back end and the center ice position. It’s quite a different group in terms of that, so guys who don’t play a lot of minutes are going to need a lot of work for our team to get better. Those minutes have got to go up, which means that they have to help us win.

On Anze Kopitar’s heavy usage early in the season:
Yeah, I think it’s tied to two or three things. Number one is special teams, number two is face offs. Last night when we tied it to overtime, he took two shifts in two and a half minutes. We need to get a few more minutes out of our centermen. If you just do it last night, if he’s a 24-minute guy, he shouldn’t be a 24-minute guy in the long run. It’s like talking about Doughty last year. 30 minutes is not good for a team For Kopi, in the long run, 24 minutes is not the right number, either. Those four or five minutes should be going somewhere else. We need production out of those other four or five minutes. [Reporter: It’s hard, though, because when you’re in the game, what do you do, right?] Some guys aren’t matching up. We’re at home, and I get to match up who we want. What happens when we go on the road and we don’t?

On whether Brayden McNabb is fine after blocking a Zach Parise shot:
Yeah, he’s fine. … He wears his [skate protectors]. He wanted to practice. I just thought with pairs and ice time and playing tomorrow, it’s better [that he rests]. … He and Marty, they both blocked shots last night on their feet. They both wear their shields.