Sutter (mostly) OK with last night’s fights

The Kings and Phoenix Coyotes combined for 62 penalty minutes last night — including four fights — but there was no carry-over to today, as the league office didn’t issue any supplemental discipline (none was really expected). Today, I asked Darryl Sutter whether he thought anything in last night’s game crossed the line, or whether it was just a physical game…

SUTTER: “I think Doan and Brown, that’s two captains that play hard, and one guy responded to the other one. That’s a respect thing, right? Then (Mike) Smith just reacted. I’m not sure if he thought (the contact from Kopitar) was late or hard or what. It was just one of those things. It was all a spin-off of (Brown’s hit on) Klesla. I really didn’t put it into anything but that. The fight in the third had zero to do with anything.”

Question: Was the hit on Fraser (by Raffi Torres) late?

SUTTER: “Torres? He’s half a second late, a lot.”

Jarret Stoll, who watched the game from the locker room, give his take on the on-ice nastiness.

STOLL: “Shane Doan is a great captain and Brownie is a great captain, and they did a great to get the game underway like that.”

One source of amusement, in all the craziness, was the fight between Mike Richards, listed at 5-foot-11, and Martin Hanzal, listed at 6-foot-6.

STOLL: “That was interesting to watch that, but he [Richards] did a great job, I thought. He has a little pit bull in him. He can hold his own against the big guys.”