March 1 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Alec Martinez:
“He was cleared for contact after the game the other night. We could’ve had him back yesterday.”

On whether Martinez is close to playing:
“He was cleared for contact. Remember the protocol. Injured reserve, he’s hurt, can’t play. Cleared for contact, activated, available to play. Not much more than that.”

On two “hot” goaltenders at this portion of the season:
“I think they’re competing against each other to see who plays the next game. That’s all it is. It’s not necessarily ‘hot.’ It means that they’re playing well enough to win the next game.”

On whether the need to win tomorrow’s game in Vancouver is almost like the need to win the first game of a long road trip, considering the heavy schedule approaching:
“No, it’s just a one game trip. Then we come home for five. Then we go for what, two? Then we come home and go for three or four. Then we’ve got to combine Washington [to meet the President] with it. So it’s tough…I’m not looking at it any more than tomorrow. We play four back to back sets – you just keep going four sets, four sets – it’s almost the impossible schedule.”

On the previous Vancouver game:
“We were down 2-0, we tied 2-2 and [won] in a shootout.”

On the previous Vancouver game taking place “so long ago in the season”:
“Not really. It was really just kind of in the course of…18 [games], and it was a dozen games ago. So it’s not that long ago.”

On his ideal schedule and rhythm between games:
“It depends where you’re at. In the old days when I was in Chicago, they were on the Original Six schedule, so you played Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday always. The old Original Six teams always had home dates Saturdays, Wednesdays, Sundays. That’s a different schedule. Your travel is different. You’d come out west, your travel was way different. So you’d prefer to have one day a week, whether it’s basically a recovery day, if you could. And if not, then you were traveling or playing. There’s not an ‘ideal’ schedule, and quite honest, this is totally different, and then going forward with the unknown of conference or divisions, if [realignment] comes to pass, how that’s going to be again. So you just have to reset. I don’t know what ‘ideal’ is, quite honest, because until you see it, you have to adjust to it. Hey, the biggest thing is trusting players. It’s what it’s about, right? Guys that play minutes, guys who don’t, trusting that their recovery is in the right order in terms of nutrition. It’s basically putting the fuel in the engine all the time.”

On players’ generally improved nutritional habits in the modern game:
“I think probably it’s an overview. Most of them are like that. You guys are just as familiar as some of our young guys, guys who have struggled before I was here, and they’ve struggled while I was here, and most fit in as that. Hey, it was the biggest issue I had seen last year with our club. It wasn’t anything other than to do with other than not living in a hockey environment, and young players have to adjust to that.”

On standing in front of the logo of a “certain fast food company”:
“I haven’t been to one of those since they cut off Alberta beef, which was quite a few years ago, and I don’t even like standing beside it.”

On when they cut off Alberta beef:
“Being cattle guys, the mad cow thing, they cut off Alberta beef – they cut off North American beef – so I don’t like standing beside that.”

On whether it’s challenging controlling the players’ emotions, given the “hatred” expressed towards the Canucks:
“Whatever they said, use, because I didn’t know it was like that. Was it ‘hatred’? That was the word? Good. Talk to them, don’t talk to me. I haven’t said it, so it doesn’t really come…to me”

On whether it’s “more challenging” to control the players’ emotions in a Los Angeles – Vancouver game:
“It hasn’t been in the past.”