April 28 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether there’s a lot that needs to be said to this group, or whether he’ll them to “go out and do what you need to do”:
No, not just ‘go out and do what you need to do,’ because that didn’t work in Games 1 and 2. I don’t know what that has to do with it. I mean, quite honest, experience in this series is leadning on the team that has home ice. They do have more playoff experience than us. You’ve got to have playoff experience, not just winning experience. If you get beat in the Finals, that’s just as good as winning, quite honest, when you think about the process and the journey of it all, when you’re playing every other day.

On handling San Jose’s forecheck through speed and passing:
Yeah, I think maximizing skill sets. Not everybody has the same skill set. It’s an easy game from up top, and it’s an easy game from the bench. It is. But there is a lot of hockey sense involved, meaning understanding and knowing the game, and also the more you play the same team over and over, or the more you’re out there against the same player a lot, there’s a lot of courage involved.

On whether the team prepares any differently due to San Jose’s lineup adjustments:
Not really. I mean, I know it’s been a big thing that we heard before the series who was starting, and then who was playing for them on defense, and who was playing on forward. But when you get into a Game 6, quite honest, one team’s really fortunate to use the same lineup every game.

On whether there’s a reason behind the surplus of comebacks in the playoffs:
No. When it’s all said and done and you’ll add it up – I know you’re really good at the math and analytics – you’re going to add it up and take out empty nets, and it’s going to be three-two. That’s what it is. [Reporter: You’re not a secret analytics guy, Darryl?] Yeah, we are, but he gets to play point zero six, point zero seven. There’s a lot of it involved. Just that when you don’t have nothing else to think about, then that’s what you think about.

On approaching tonight’s Game 6, 10 years after a Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Final:
Martin St. Louis scored in overtime. I just see that in my mind. [Reporter: How do you coach differently now than you did 10 years ago?] Different teams, obviously, different personnel, different ages. I mean, if you’re just coaching differently from that team to this team, that was a team that was pretty much, with the old rules, was a grind team. It was a Kiprusoff, Iginla, Regehr team. So, obviously now, their game is more teams that are playing in the playoffs than teams that are moving on, or get to play longer – it’s a star factor, for sure. So I think probably the coaches now have to have a good relationship with those guys, for sure. Because there’s not just one. There’s a whole bunch.

On the “courage” in playing against a team repeatedly in a playoff series:
Well, because guys get banged up as a series goes along, there’s certainly a more controlled, physical part of playoffs. You know, when you stop and think about it, if there’s one time during a game, as there was – what game was it here – where guys got 10s and twos at the end, well, that’s not really not what playoffs are about. It’s about the whistle-to-whistle part of it, and there is a lot more contact in playoffs than there are in the regular season, for sure. When you go to what Randy’s question was about top players, well top players are going to have to be more invested in that part of it, for sure. In the end, that’s how it sort of all sorts out. The defending Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks, they’re not looked on as a big, physical team. They’re looked on as a team that executes and plays hard, and their star players do it, they do that for you.

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