April 18 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the mood of the team:
We’re in good position. We just do an analytical, and the analysis there, and I feel we could be 1-1 or 2-0. We’ll do that same thing tonight and hopefully get a better result.

On Jonathan Quick’s temperament on and off the ice when the team is in the playoffs:
Other than games during playoffs, he’s probably not on the ice very much. I think those goalies have a real tight focus and they’re obviously different personalities, but I think Jonathan’s a pretty serious game-day guy.

On whether it was challenging going to five defensemen in Game 1, and Jamie McBain’s play:
Yeah, it was. Obviously it was in Game 1, just because I think Martinez played after two or three shifts in the second period he didn’t play anymore, so you need six defensemen, and I said after Game [2] that McBain had played really well based on the minutes he played, and that’s probably the most minutes he’d played this year, and that’s what we need him to play.

On commonalities that allow older, veteran players to play at a high level:
I think two things as they get old – whatever you call ‘old’ in today’s game – but I think the two common things that all those guys strive for or have are championships. If you just did it based on these two teams, it’s still their driving force behind them. If they can win a championship, or win it again, it’s always what drives those guys. That’s why most of them are great players. It’s why they’ve played as long as they have. It’s not easy just to be able to sustain that first of all a level of play, but to be able to play as long as they have, especially in today’s game. [Reporter: You said two things. That’s one thing. Was championships multiple?] Yeah. Both. Get one more. For sure. [Reporter: Is that what drives you, to want to keep coaching?] Absolutely.

On Peter DeBoer praising the Kings’ play while saying the Sharks have done what they set out to do:
If you look at it … going back to that stats and analysis thing, there are 10 goals scored in the series. Three are five-on-four, one’s four-on-five, and one’s five-on-three. So after that, it’s scoring chances in five-on-five. They’ve scored on a handful of theirs, and we’ve scored on one of ours. It’s the difference in the series. There’s really not much gap at all. As I said, I’m not saying it because I’m coaching the team that’s 0-2 or the team that’s 2-0. It could be quite easily the other way. That’s how close it is. You get in, the teams are all even. There’s no difference in the teams. That’s how hard it is. You’ve already played a round. You played an 82-game round.

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