March 11 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Washington’s league-best 143 goals against:
First off, they have one of the best goalies in the league, and they have one of the most experienced teams in the league, and it’s not like they’ve all of a sudden come upon that. If you have the opportunity to watch Washington play, they’ve been a dominant team for a number of years now. [Reporter: Are they also similar to that – for the lack of a better term – “heavier” style for Eastern teams? That they can play a style like San Jose, like L.A., where they can be quick up and down the ice, but they’re also one of the bigger, more physical teams, still?] They’re a big team, a mobile team. They run a four-line team, which leads to extended success and more time in the offensive zone.

On what has improved in the power play, or whether pucks are just going in now:
I think the one group’s been really good – whoever we put on the second group. The second power part of it’s been really good. The first minute part of our power plays have not. [Reporter: Would you maybe shuffle that up even a little more?] No, I trust those guys. You know what? Tanner’s a really good net guy, and Kopi and Jeff and Drew, I’d prefer they were always on the first one, so the only thing we should shuffle in there is maybe the one defenseman or somebody who’s not doing a job around the net.

On Paul LaDue having “acquitted himself” well on the power play:
Every game it’s something different. I’d say Jarome acquitted himself pretty well.

On “continuity” with the forward lines:
Well, you want success. So continuity in lines means five-on-five, right? They line up, they play five-on-five. Continuity’s fine. That’s wonderful to say ‘well, we don’t change lines up, those guys play together.’ You’ve got to score. Otherwise you don’t. If you get outplayed by the other team’s line, that’s continuity, but if three guys get outplayed by three guys, that’s not.

On the options that having another number one goalie in Ben Bishop provides:
Well, first off, really clear, bringing Ben in here was for the longevity of Jonathan Quick. If we’d have been 10 points or 12 points out of a playoff spot or had a comfortable spot clearly, I don’t think that the organization would’ve gone after another number one goalie. I think you’re looking at the long term of Jonathan Quick. He has a long-term contract. It’s what I said – I’m not going to play him every game. Quite honest, we’re in a position where we’re fighting for a playoff spot because our goaltending in February hit the wall. We were losing way more than we were winning in terms of goaltender versus goaltender, and we had one goalie that was leading the league in losses and one goalie that had the fewest wins, so that’s a recipe for not success. So having two goalies, it doesn’t matter if they’re two twos or two ones. We’ve got to win games. Lots of number twos here are five or six games over .500, so we need both of these guys every time they’re in to win a game for us.

On Ben Bishop’s “stickhandling option”:
Both our goalies are. I think they both see forechecks and handle plays really well. We’re fortunate to have both those guys – it’s something that was missing in our game. It’s important also … because we have three or four young defensemen. You’ve got to have experience to be able to do that. We have that. Otherwise you’re basically giving pucks back, and there are goalies in the league that do that, too, but we’re a strong possession team. Either get us the whistle, get us the faceoff, get the rebound to somebody, or make the play on the puck coming in. It makes a big difference.

On whether the calves on the farm are being birthed:
Not starting quite yet. [Reporter: Not quite yet? Is that in April, the first week of April?] Should be sometime between the 17th and 21st.