March 24 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On having lots of forwards at practice today:
It’s kind of the way it works in March. With that cap thing, you can’t be over 23 and you’ve got to be under the cap, and then after the deadline you can be under the cap and have 43. I don’t like talking about that stuff because I’m a big believer that I don’t know why if you’re under the cap you can’t have 30 guys with the way schedules are. I don’t understand that – why you couldn’t have five lines and eight D all the time. I don’t know if you’re under the cap why you couldn’t. It’s got to be an advantage to getting the best performance out of players and having young guys around when you want ‘em – things like that. It’s kind of what we have now. [Reporter: Having a guy like Brodzinski around, what are you hoping he gets out of it?] I’m excited for those two young guys – Kempe and him – just to see what they’ve got. It’s getting a little broad to start talking about roles or any of that stuff. You just want to try and get him a game here and there and just see where they’re at. It’s not easy putting a player like Jonny in because he’s a winger, and we’re playing two really young centermen and at least three young defensemen, so you’ve pretty much got to take somebody out to put him in. [Reporter: Brodzinski, I talked to him a little bit, and he said just being in the same room with Jarome Iginla was a big thing for him. I mean, that’s got to be somebody you’d hope leaves an impression on him, I would guess.] Well, I’ve got to think there’s 10 or 11 guys in here that have won Stanley Cups that he should keep his eye on. I really don’t know where he’s at in terms of performance or play, I couldn’t tell you. We’ll see.

On Adrian Kempe’s performance:
Up and down. 21. He should be well rested today.

On the skills Nick Shore provides “going forward,” once he returns from injury:
I think coming into the season we had no idea who our third, fourth, fifth centermen were. It was pretty obvious if we were healthy that Carter and Kopitar were our clear cut two, but after that we were just flippin’ ‘er in the air. It’s been a big turnover in our organization of NHL centermen in terms of what we felt was the best center ice in the division to go to two and not sure who the next three were. So what we expect out of Nick Shore was this year – it’s not ‘going forward.’ I don’t even know if he’s going to play this year. We’ve got to make the playoffs, probably, for him to play, so that’s a stretch. What do you expect out of him? Hey, go from a fifth or a four to try and be a three.