October 25 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Lake Erie’s style of play against Ontario in the Calder Cup playoffs:
I don’t remember much about it. Obviously you win a championship, you’ve had a good season, not just the playoffs. It’s a long haul to win a championship.

On Peter Budaj:
He’s played really well for us, given u a chance to win. I think there are things that he can work on to help his save percentage, help his puck play, help his rebound control, help us with our possession, help us with exchanges with the defensemen. There’s a lot to work on. This is very much a day-at-a-time deal here.

On Brayden McNabb’s development:
Last year he didn’t play the first game. He had a rough training camp last year, I would say the biggest difference would be. [Reporter: Are you seeing a better defenseman than you had?] You have to see it over a period of time. … We break our season down into five-games- [Reporter: I know it’s a small sample size.] Yeah, it’s a very small sample size. And, quite honest, you guys have asked that about the defensemen. I’m not getting into the individual part of it at all. I think until our goals against get to where it’s got to be, you’re going to say our defensemen have to all be a lot better.

On facing younger hockey teams:
I think they’re still a veteran hockey club. I think they put the two young guys in on defense, which wouldn’t be much different if we had Forbort and Brayden, which are both, if you look, the same age as those two guys they put in. So not a whole lot of difference, when you look at it, in terms of experience. Everybody now, you take an 18-year-old or a 19-year-old, and then you take a 35-year-old, and you take them out, everybody’s in that 26-to-28 [range]. There ain’t no difference. That’s like saying you’re 21 and 11 months or 21 and one month. Not much difference in age in this league.