Sutter postgame quotes (March 20)

Darryl Sutter’s postgame thoughts…

(on the improved killer instinct, to put teams away…)
SUTTER: “I think tonight, it was because we had four lines (against) a team that played last night, and we could push it a little bit, catch guys at the end of shifts. Guys who play a lot, catch them a little bit tired, and we looked fresher than them. I think that’s the difference in the `killer’ part of it. I think we took advantage of that.’’

(on Dustin Penner scoring again…)
SUTTER: “Good for him. He moved his feet, shot on the fly. He looked like Mark Messier. [grins] … It looked a lot like Kinger’s goal the other night, where he cut it to shoot on the fly on the far side of the ice. Good play.’’

(on Alec Martinez’s recent play…)
SUTTER: “We’ve got to get minutes out of him. It’s real simple. When we made the Johnson deal, that was going to put Voynov and Marty and Drew in more situations than they had been used to. I don’t put him any different than Slava. They’ve got to produce. One is a lefty and one’s a righty, and they’ve got to produce for us.’’

(on Mike Richards’ shorthanded goal…)
SUTTER: “We use our offensive guys, when you look at it, Richie and Jeff and Kopi and Brownie in kill situations. That’s an instinct thing, too. A lot of teams go in the umbrella now, and those pucks around the walls, if you can end up winning a battle along the wall, they end up being an odd-man situation the other way. It was a good shot. He usually looks off, to make the pass there. Short side, good shot.’’

(on getting the power-play goal for a two-goal lead…)
SUTTER: “Kopi made a great play. He bought some time. That’s actually not unlike the play he made in the last game, where he came in off the wall and made the goalie bite a little. Then he got him froze. That’s what he did there. He just changed the angle enough to freeze him.’’

(on moving into eighth place in the conference…)
SUTTER: “Is that what it is? Jeez. You can win and not gain any ground. It’s crazy. It doesn’t mean nothing. The bottom line is, we pretty much have to overcome something that’s pretty much insurmountable. We’ll try to take advantage of what we have to home. It doesn’t get any easier. We play the best team in the league and defending Stanley Cup champions, back to back. I don’t think where we are right now means much to me. I’m thinking about St. Louis.’’