February 19 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the practices leading up to next Wednesday’s game in Denver:
Well, because you start later today, tomorrow you’ve still got to work on a lot of the hands stuff. We’ll try and get into system context stuff on the third and fourth day. Obviously now there’s four guys that will meet us in Colorado, so we’ll get two more back. I want to get some special teams in one day, but that might not be ‘til we get to Denver. So we’ll just see how it goes.

On his impressions from the first practice:
Guys haven’t skated, and the American League guys aren’t used to practicing at this pace. The guys who weren’t the fastest guys out there were the guys from the American League. It’s a big difference, right?

On when compete drills will be incorporated into practice:
Hopefully we’ll do a little bit on day three, and then more on four. A little bit, some down low stuff, and tomorrow has to be more of an aerobic day, I think. Friday is also the Canada-U.S. game, so we’ll switch the time so guys can watch it.

On watching Anze Kopitar and Slovenia in the Olympics:
I was hoping they’d beat the Swedes.

On watching Olympic hockey:
When you go back to Canada for those four days, if you’re not outside, you get hockey and curling, so of course you’re watching them. [Reporter: But are you watching particular players on the Kings? Are you watching your guys, or are you watching as a fan?] When you asked before, Jon, quite honest, I wanted everybody to win a gold medal. It’s not possible. So now there’s four guys that have a chance. It’s too bad…For me now, it’s too bad those guys have to play each other Friday. Just the way it all worked out. And they’ve all played well. When you look at all six of them, they’ve all played really well.

On not having Colin Fraser in the dressing room:
He’s a two-time Stanley Cup winner, Colin Fraser. Hopefully he still gets to play for us.