March 30 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether he’s happy with the team’s direction on the road trip:
One at a time. You don’t get extra points or anything like that. It’s one game at a time. Try and get in.

On Jonathan Quick’s durability:
I think he’s shown that in the playoffs the last three years, the importance of – it’s not ‘durability,’ but ‘succeeding.’ I think he’s shown that. If you, again, go back to where we were at the All-Star Break, and we made that decision that we were going to ride him, I don’t think he played like we know he can, and we were going to play him. That’s what we’ve done, and it’s given us a chance to make the playoffs.

On returning to the United Center for the first time since last year’s series:
We’ve played Chicago twice this year. They kicked our ass the first game, 4-1, and we had a really strong game the first game after the All-Star Break, so coming back here is not relevant. It’s the third time we’ve played ‘em. We know what kind of hockey club they are and the respect that we have for each other. [Reporter: Jeff had a big night, I seem to remember, the second game in L.A.] Yeah, the line was good, yeah. And they’ve been good. Again, that’s the first game after the All-Star Break, and we basically just said we were going to leave Jeff and Ty together, and somebody had to get going with ‘em. Hopefully Kinger’s going again.

On Jeff Carter’s “package,” and what makes him so difficult to defend:
Well, ‘the package.’ If you think about it, he’s got good size, really good speed, good hockey sense, doesn’t take penalties. He can play situations, meaning special teams, both – he can take faceoffs, especially on the one side of the ice for us, even more so now than Jarret, the right-handed side. It’s such a position you have to be so strong in. Jeff hasn’t played a lot of center for us, if you look at it, even last year, if you look at Game 7 in here, Jeff didn’t play center. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter played on a line together, and that’s probably an asset, too, being able to play two positions, which probably gives you a handful more shifts during the game. He’s got to be a hard guy to play against, I would think, because he can play any type of game, and it’s a high-pace game.

On whether he expects Chicago to offer a different look without Patrick Kane:
Everybody has players out. I mean, Kane’s a really good player for them, but it’s like us saying that a 25-minute defenseman in Slava Voynov who changes our team. Certainly it changes the way teams play. It puts more responsibility on other players. Either they can or they can’t. But if you look at the Blackhawks, their speed is still very much relevant, and even without Kane in the lineup, don’t forget adding Vermette and playing the Finn more now – hey, you know what? That’s why they’re a really good hockey club. You need the depth and you need your young players to step up, and either they do or they don’t.