April 9 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the impact of the Kings’ big game experience on tonight’s game:
It’s a game. It’s got nothing to with anything other than it’s a game. We’ve had a good series against Calgary this year, and we expect to play well tonight.

On whether its helpful that the Kings have previously had its “back against the wall”:
Not in the regular season. I can’t say that for every player.

On the impact of match-ups beyond those involving the top lines in tonight’s game:
I don’t know, you’d have to ask Bob, because they have the last change, so I would I know what the match-ups are going to be? [Reporter: How big of an impact do you see that the secondary match-ups beyond the top players will have in tonight’s game?] Just dig a little deeper in your stats. I think that the Carter line has had a great series against Calgary this year, and the Monahan line has had a great series against the Kings this year, so you can dig a little deeper and see what you’d expect out of the next part of it.

On Jeff Carter’s play since the All-Star Break:
I think he’s had a really consistent year. Touch wood, the biggest thing with Jeff this year is he’s stayed healthy. He hasn’t missed any games. That’s the biggest thing. And if you’d look when he played through – in fact it was in here, one of the times we went Calgary-Edmonton – and he was doubtful to play and played both those games. So if you look at it, durability for top players is paramount. I mean, you can look at the scoring race right now in the league. Somebody with probably 85 points is going to win the scoring race. If Sidney would’ve played 10 more games, he’d probably have 10 more points. So that is paramount. If you want to be considered an elite player that’s productive on a night in, night out basis, and based on probably value in terms of what top players make, you expect him to play every night.

On the team not having its “back against the wall” in the regular season:
You’ve just got to win a game. You know what? And you know it, a lot of the questions that get asked, you’ve got to win a game. It’s got nothing to do with anything else. That’s all. [Reporter: It doesn’t matter how you got to this position.] Yeah, it really doesn’t matter. You could say we should’ve had a hundred points if we’d have won more shootouts. You could say lots of different things. It’s just about winning a game. I’m not one way or another about it.

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