March 18 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Kevin Gravel defending well one-on-one, and whether he’s adding some “jam” to his game:
Well, when you go back in the lineup, you should try and prove a point. You’ve got to try and form an identity or create an identity in the league. We want our defensemen, not unlike any other team, to be good with the puck and good without the puck.

On whether it’s fair to say that the Kings do a good job of developing defensemen:
These guys are all three-four-five-year, most of these guys we put in this year have had college careers, so they should be well schooled coming out. You shouldn’t have to spend as much time with them as those kids out of junior. [Reporter: I get that. It’s just that you look at this defensive corps, there’s a first rounder in Doughty-] Well, be thankful that Drew Doughty is here. There’s a big gap between Drew Doughty and then those players. I mean, Marty’s had a pretty good year, but after that, be thankful we’ve had Drew Doughty.

On aspects of the penalty kill that facilitated clears and limited Buffalo to zero shots:
We’re one of the lowest penalized teams in the league, which has allowed us to stay in the race. That’s first and foremost the most important, and we kept them out of the zone. It wasn’t so much clears, it was not giving them – it’s hard to do. That team is a dynamic group of guys that enter the zone with a lot of speed and enter the zone with a lot of two-on-one play