March 9 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On how the Capitals have evolved this year while remaining a “big” team:
Young guys are a year older. Not much more than that. Still a top-end team, they’ve been that for several years. They just haven’t taken the next step in the playoffs yet. [Reporter: Are they better defensively?] I couldn’t tell you. We’ve only played ‘em once. We had 40 shots.

On whether there is more “balance” in the Capitals’ game:
Well, I’d say Kuznetsov’s a year older, and he’s like sixth in the league in scoring now, so I don’t know if that’s ‘balance’ or just ‘better.’ It’s a big difference.

On Rob Scuderi’s impact to the “balance” of the Kings’ defense:
He’s a veteran on a young defense, so he’s supposed to bring some stability and composure and balance. He does that very well wherever he’s been. That’s why he’s a two-time Stanley Cup champion.

On his takeaways from Monday’s Capitals-Ducks game:
I was enamored with your team. [Reporter: Is there anything that stood out with Washington?] We just played them in [Washington]. I didn’t really watch what the Ducks do against ‘em. Watch what the Kings do against the Capitals is more important to me. [Reporter: Did you like the Kings’ performance from that game last month?] Yes, it was outstanding.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.