November 14 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether his choices in the shootout represented a “reward situation”:
No, it’s more percentages. The goalie, we usually talk before the game always when if we get to a shootout, depending on the type of game that they’re having. But usually we agree on four or five guys. That’s Kinger’s shot, that low blocker. Brownie had that shot, too. If they hit their shots, all three of them score, and Dowder missed the net. You’ve got to hit the net. There’s this much room, shoot there. He’s got that shot.

On what he has seen from his team over the last 24 hours of a long road trip:
We’ve been good, right through. We talked again today, it’s not the trip part of it. If you look, we’re finishing with back-to-backs. We go home, but we’re still going every-other-day and then finishing back-to-back, so it’s not a five-game trip for us. We look at it like … we’re going to play nine games, and it’s basically just today is about tomorrow, always. It’s a tough grind. All the guys – they’ve been really good. We’ve played well, and quite honest, if you take away a shootout goal and an empty-net goal, we’ve given up seven goals in four games. You should have more points. Got to score another goal in there somewhere. If you could’ve said before that was what you were going to do, you’d take that, for sure. I have no complaints with how we’ve played or anything. It’s been tough.

On Jordan Nolan making several plays on Sunday, and the fourth line’s impact:
Hey, that line’s got to contribute. Jordan Nolan’s got to try and stay in the lineup, and he hasn’t done that. That fourth line, obviously we didn’t agree with Cliffy’s penalty. It should’ve been a minor at the most. But at the same time, that’s a major penalty for that line. They had a great opportunity, Shoresy and Cliffy, and they don’t get a shot. That’s got to be a scoring chance. … Jordan hasn’t scored a goal in over a year. You’ve got to something. I mean, he got in the lineup because of injury, you’ve got to stay in the lineup. Fourth lines now, everybody has to adapt and adjust, and we’ve tried to do that, right? Fourth line is not a fight line any more. You-have-to-be-able-to-play-line. Hey, Cliffy’s done a really good job for us, if you look at it. We’ve had to move Kyle around in our lineup, and he’s scored a couple goals for us now. He’s in always on the energy and enthusiasm, and we’re trying to get him to show some more leadership in terms of the locker room and that type of thing, but the other guys, hey, your fourth line’s got to have more than one guy on it. Need more out of the other guys. Jordie got in because that’s Lewie’s spot. Lewie’s a guy you can move around, right? I mean, you shouldn’t want to have to play without Kopitar, but we’re going to have to play without Kopitar. That’s a fact. Those guys have got to contribute. They can’t be just six or seven-minute guys, especially when they talk about the stretch of games. You’re not going to win if they’re six or seven-minute guys and they’re spending most of the shift in their own zone. We’ve been fortunate to be able to keep intact, other than from injury, keep for the most part lines that are pretty much together. So we’re still trying to do that. The Dowd line’s been good for us. So obviously we’ve got to move around a little bit, but that fourth line, you can’t just say, ‘have an identity.’ That’s kind of old-fashioned. They’ve got to contribute. They’ve got to be able to play against good lines. We’ve seen that this whole trip. Those teams are good teams. Look at Montreal – they put ‘em out to play in their own zone, taking those faceoffs, things like that. You’ve got to be able to do that.

On being in Toronto and Montreal in the lead-up to the Hall of Fame ceremony:
It was good to see Rogie out there. That’s the best part of it, and knowing Pat Quinn well. I wish he would’ve got in when he was still alive, but it’s a long time waiting for Rogie. I bet he probably thought it had passed him by now, so that was awesome to see. Hey, when you’ve been around a long time with the tradition and the history and all those things, it’s good to see the older guys in Toronto – that’s the only time you see ‘em now. Jimmy Gregory and guys like that that you have a lot of respect for, it’s good to see those people, that part of the game still. … The most important parts of those 50 years are Rogie Vachon, Wayne Gretzky and two Stanley Cups, right? Think about it, what he did, quietly, and what Wayne did and what the Cups did. It’s significant, those three things. It’s good to see Wayne back involved in everything, too, in the league. More prominent again, too.