May 4 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter

On Justin Williams’ poke check to disrupt a St. Louis scoring chance:
“He played lots. He played well. We don’t really look at individual things.”

On the difference in Saturday’s game, considering the effort was similar to Thursday’s:
“You know what, if you look at the series, 5-on-5 is so tough. There are a lot of little battles going on that only the players appreciate or understand. It’s pretty much what we said at the outset. There’s not much for goals, and you can’t get frustrated by it. Your top guys can’t get frustrated and start playing their own individual game, a turnover or stretch it out. That’s basically how we’re trying to play.”

On whether the officials showed good patience during the scramble before Voynov’s goal:
“First off, there’s several scrums around the goaltenders, and if the pucks not frozen then that’s their job not to lose sight of it. We’ve seen it both ways in the series. Actually, when we break it down, a lot of the shots are one-foot, and there’s two or three of them and they all don’t get counted. You know what? We had two senior officials again tonight. Win or lose, I think they do a good job.”

On Dustin Brown’s assertion that strong penalty killing leads to strong even strength play:
“Penalty killing? We didn’t allow a goal. Obviously you’ve got key guys, two or three guys who are really important. They have a net presence…and it goes back to five-on-five. Both teams’ power plays have had their hands full in this series.”

On whether he was getting more chances offensively from his defensemen:
“We were just trying to get some more energy when we dressed seven guys and the schedule. Just trying to get a little bit more of that 200 foot game instead of just inside their own zone. I thought we were better at it.”

On the decision to go with seven defensemen:
“Exactly that. I think we’re trying to get a little bit more out of everybody. We really haven’t used four lines very much in this series, especially on the right side of the ice. We’re trying to get Brownie and Willie and Jeff – really all it is is when you dress seven D, if you break it down with our team, it’s about 12 more shifts. When you break it down, it’s not that significant.”

On whether he’s surprised that goals are “at a premium”:
“Do your homework before the series. The two teams are very even. Gave up the fewest shots in the conference, one and two. Both goaltenders – everybody understands who they are and what they are.”

On whether he’s happy with the scoring chances in general, even if goals haven’t been coming:
“It’s what it is. Yep.”

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