Sutter on Forbort and the coach’s challenge protocol

On whether Derek Forbort has grown with more experience:
He was a little better last game. The bottom line is, he’s going to play on the third pair and he’s got to give you teen-minutes. If you can’t win with those teen-minutes, then he’s not ready. He’s got good size and good skill, so he’s got to use them both. [Reporter: Does that come-] Yeah, I think a little bit. I mean, you say he’s been around – he hasn’t. He’s played very little hockey. He played a college schedule, so he hasn’t played much hockey. He played last year, and if their team wouldn’t have had a playoff run, he would’ve had no chance of making this team this year. Just the experience of playing in situations. Quite honest, him and Christian are the very same. Christian’s older, so you’ve got to manage his games and make sure he gets his pace and keeps his execution and his compete up, and same with Derek. He has to learn about pace, execution and compete. So maintaining that with Christian and getting Derek to be there certainly gives us the same guy.

On Nick Bjugstad’s goal on Saturday starting the protocol for a coach’s challenge:
We’ve done it lots already on other goals that we thought were close. [Reporter: Was that the closest that you had come to maybe using it? How much time did you have, could you describe-] We had lots of time in that game. As soon as they scored, our young guys, the video guys know to start checking. Anything that’s not a goal scored, anything that’s off-side, we make sure they’re right on top of it and can get the angles as quick as they can, and if you watch after that goal was scored, I think it was Andy, they lined up at center and then Andy skated away because we hollered at them to back off until we checked it and Samson said that clearly there was one replay that showed the puck all the way over the line. So that’s what you want. Ultimately that’s what you want. [Reporter: It’s interesting, that communication.] And that play also, Tom Kowal came over after the centerman skated away. Then he came over, too. Came over to the bench. They give ‘em time. They’re thinking the same thing you are. ‘OK, did you guys look at it?’ [Reporter: It’s always interesting because in football teams will sometimes line up immediately and try to run a play before you can get a replay through.] It would be the next thing that they should do – we’ve got the little cameras in the nets. They’re going to have to do something that’s blue line-related because your buildings aren’t all conformed in terms of where the cameras are and all that. They’re supposed to legally drop the puck – not legally, but there’s an unwritten rule – it says, if you look in the book, after a goal is scored, the puck has to be dropped if it’s a normal circumstance. 30 or 40 seconds, or whatever it is, if you look in the book, it says that. So that’s what they’re going to do, right? So the angles are all the same. [Reporter: They can do that, right? If you get the goalpost cameras now.] There’s got to be a way instead of saying, ‘We’re using our angle, this angle,’ and we do have a league camera now, but still you’re looking at all your different angles. The off-sides is actually an easier call for them to make than the goaltender one, because the goaltender one is very seldom going to get overturned. It’s still clearly the discretion of the official, and unless it’s something that’s totally missed when they look at it – they missed a stick or a kick or something like that – the off-side should be absolutely clear, because if the puck’s on the ice and the skate’s on the ice, it’s pretty easy to see. It’s when the skate’s in the air, so you can’t get the right angle, or the puck’s in the air. It’s the same thing, that’s like when we were in Calgary in the Finals. They said it was a goal, well, I was the coach of the team it didn’t get counted on, but when you look at it, really you couldn’t tell. From one angle, it’s a friggin’ goal, but the puck’s in the air, so which angle is that? Is that looking straight down, or is it this way? At the end of the day, when you take your emotion out of it, that’s not conclusive, so on the ice it was no-goal, so it’s no-goal. [Reporter: Everybody gets the camera angle. ‘Look – it’s clearly over!’] And another thing to that – I mean, this is a step, so there’s another step. And even that, if that would’ve been a challenge, they’d have gone over there. It would’ve taken another minute because surely they would’ve been cued for that, but I don’t think it’s delayed much.

On Nick Nickson being presented with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award:
It sounds harsh, but I’m sure most everybody wants to get in when they’re living. Three things – [posthumously] might make the family happy, but it didn’t do anything for me. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is Nick had his whole career in one place, right? And the third one is Foster Hewitt. Say what you want, there’s only one Foster Hewitt. He grew up in Canada, so to be able to get something that says Foster Hewitt on it, in hockey that’s it. [Reporter: Not to put you on the spot too much here, but who are some of your favorite broadcasters?] Foster Hewitt. Danny Gallivan. Pat Foley went in last year, and he was a rookie when I was a rookie, so another thing that really should come into that? Winning championships helps the guys who travel. If you look at the last few years, it does matter. It does resonate.