October 4 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the week ahead in advance of Las Vegas:
Get practices in, a couple big games. It’s not about Vegas. It’s about the Kings. It’s a big week for some of our players. We have a lot of guys still. It was good to get ‘em a day off and get a couple practices in and let them get ready for the weekend again.

On Devin Setoguchi:
It’s a big week for him. We play Friday and Saturday. It’s a big week for him. There’s 16 or 17 forwards here. From a coaching standpoint, you don’t look at it in terms of tryout or last year or next year. You’re looking at he’s still here, and it’s the way the league is now. There are a lot of players on tryouts, and there are always a handful that earn contracts strictly based on training camp, and there are always a lot of guys that don’t. That’s the way it is now. [Reporter: How can you assess his camp so far, just as far as what he’s done to still be here at this point?] He can still play at a high pace. Not all players have the great desire to do that every day. He’s still here, so that means he’s got a good assessment. It doesn’t make sense going farther than that. Came in in good shape, came in and played a pace, came in and played the way that we need to play. Just continue to every day just try and help him and give him some direction, and then he takes the ball.

On whether more players are on tryouts this year:
Yeah, if you just look at Anaheim, we just played them, and they had three veteran guys that are on tryouts – Jones and [Reporter: Booth.] Booth, Bergenheim. We just played Edmonton, and Kris is there – Versteeg. Vancouver has – every team has several guys. [Reporter: It seems like it’s hard for them to stick, though. Is it just because teams like their younger players? How does it work?] There are some that will stick and some that won’t. You’ve got to be able to keep up. Most of the guys on tryouts are older guys that have either lost a step of missed time because of injury, that sort of thing. You’ve got to come ready, and you’ve got to prove it. As I said, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a tryout, or you’re an entry-level, or you’re a veteran player that’s under contract. I think more and more it’s become come in and make sure your game’s in order. Hey, Stolly’s in Columbus, I think we did it last year … so, it’s not less and less, it’s more and more tryouts, that’s what I would say.

On incorporating Drew Doughty back into practices and games:
He’s working out with our team, and I’d expect that he’d be ready to play both games this weekend. [Reporter: Kopitar?] Same thing. Kopi worked out yesterday, Drew and Muzz flew yesterday. Muzz, it’s better for him to be on the ice. He hasn’t played much. Drew and Kopi both have, and they’ll join practice tomorrow.

On whether he’ll watch the Blue Jays game today:
What time is it? [Reporter: It’s 4:30.] In the division, everybody said right that the start those were your three teams – Boston, Baltimore and Toronto – and they’re now playing playoff games. [Reporter: When was the last time you coached a single-elimination game?] Last year, when we were down three-one.