December 17 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether Jeff Carter is “OK”:
Yeah, he’s OK.

On whether Trevor Lewis will play:
I don’t know. Lewis is on IR.

On getting a practice in while in Mont Tremblant:
Yeah, that’s what hockey players do between games. [Reporter: How was it in Mont Tremblant? Were the guys happy to be there?] It’s an awesome place. Too bad there wasn’t snow. It’s a beautiful place. [Reporter: Why didn’t you want to have them here in Montreal for three days?] We were in Ottawa, and it was kind of between Ottawa and Montreal.

On what he expects from the Canadiens:
Good hockey club, high scoring team. We’ve seen a lot of these Eastern Conference teams in a row now, even when we finished at home for two games – Pittsburgh, Tampa back-to-back – so we’ve played all Eastern Conference teams, and other than Columbus, they’re very similar-type teams in terms of skill and speed and what they get from their back end and goaltending, all those things.

On whether Milan Lucic has fit in well with the Kings:
Yeah, absolutely. We said that right from the start. [Reporter: What do you like about him? How does he fit in your system?] I think he’d fit in anybody’s system. He’s a good hockey player. It’s not like he came in and surprised anybody. Everybody in the east is familiar with him, and he came out west and adapted really well. [Reporter: He’s changed his style a little bit, right? I mean, it seems like he’s – I wouldn’t say ‘less aggressive,’ but after the whistles, he just gets back to the bench and concentrates on playing the game, I would say, different than what we saw when he was with the Bruins.] I don’t think that at all. [Reporter: His penalty minutes are down.] He had one off year in terms of offense, and that would’ve been last year. Other than that, he’s been a pretty good player in terms of the whole thing, including playoffs.

On whether Jonathan Quick will start in net:
Yeah.

On the importance of picking up wins and establishing a successful road trip:
We’ve had a good trip so far. 2-1-1, so we’ve got five points in four games, so I’d think that’s a pretty good way of looking at it, and we haven’t lost two in a row. Actually, we lost in Ottawa the last game, but we finished three-in-four twice. Refresh your memories. I know you guys have had two days off, but we started with three-in-four, meaning back-to-back at home, traveled, played in Columbus. That was three-in-four, and then we had two days off, and then we played Pittsburgh-Buffalo back-to-back and then went to Ottawa, and that was three-in-four, so we’ve had two days, and now we play again tonight. So, what does the past have to do with tonight? If you can come up with it, go ahead. I can’t.