November 17 morning skate quotes: Darryl Sutter

On how the team has fared after losing a top goalie at the start of the season:
We’ve been fine, we just haven’t scored enough goals to compensate for it.

On whether the team is getting enough scoring chances despite scoring lapses:
Hey, we’re 17 games in. We get lots of chances. When you’re that far in, you’ve got guys who’ve got to start [scoring]. [Reporter: Like, we’re coming up to the corner pole now.] Yeah, and you know what? You’ve got to chip in. You’ve got to go past saying, ‘ive got the chances,’ or ‘I’ve got the shots,’ or ‘I’m getting them.’ You’ve got to say, ‘me and the goalie, the puck’s got to go behind the goalie.’ We’re getting lots of that.

On Tyler Toffoli being among those looking to boost their scoring:
I just think Tyler can be better around the net.

On whether the winning and losing streaks have been an “aberration”:
It’s not an aberration, it’s scoring. If you look at it, if you take away the first three games of the year where Jonathan got hurt and then we had to have the mourning part of it for the next couple games, right? It did affect us, clearly. It did affect us, but then we didn’t score a goal for three games. You can actually – it’s not called ‘losing’ when you lose in a shootout, right? But you’ve got to score a goal somewhere, either in regulation in the first 65 minutes, or win the shootout. So that was the second part of it in the [Winnipeg] game. Now, hey, we lose a shootout game … [in] Winnipeg, and we have a one-nothing lead in Ottawa in the third period with only a handful of minutes left, so really, you’ve got to score another goal. Two-nothing’s way better with seven minutes left, and if it comes to a shootout, then you’ve got to win the shootout. Like, it’s not as problematic as you think, but you need to score at some point. You’ve got to score that next goal. If you’re not getting great goaltending, then you need lots of scoring, right? So it becomes problematic and then it becomes pressure, because then you say, ‘well, we’re not scoring,’ so it puts pressure on guys who aren’t scoring, or vice versa. You’re not scoring, then you put pressure on goaltending, so you’ve just got to kind of stay in what’s real and figure it out as a group. [Reporter: That doesn’t help when you don’t have Kopitar.] Well, it’s not too many teams where you take your number one goalie, take your number one centerman. It’s not like we’re special. [laughs] Well, it’s true, right? We’ve lost a lot of guys, and it’s what I said. You want to say in the middle of the pack because that’s the way playoffs and divisions work. [Reporter: This division, though, it’s close enough that the team that’s leading is only two games over .500, and if you’re two games under, you’re only four points back.] You just can’t drift too far one way or the other. It’s too close, and the gap, it’s not as much as a gap in the league. It’s tight.

On whether Edmonton’s mix of size and speed will keep them in the playoff hunt:
I think they’re driven by their centermen. If you could say McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Letestu, you can put that in elite. Don’t say age or nothing. Everything else, hey, if their goalie is a number one goalie, that’s a good team.

On his relationship with Lucic:
Awesome. I think you knew it, it was awesome. [Reporter: What was he like a guy-] He was a really good guy, he was awesome, that was why we had a good relationship. [laughs] Generally, that’s kind of the way I go, right? [Reporter: No, but I mean, what types of things did you lean on him for, as far as talking to him in the room about the mood of the players, or did he give you any sort of thoughts? It seemed like he was just a good guy to talk to.] He’s got strong leadership qualities, a very vocal guy. We had a good relationship. I enjoyed spending time with him and his family. Hey, we could give him everything except $42-million. We could give him climate, give him the centermen, give him everything. But at the end of the day, I’m happy for Looch. He’s 28 years old. You’ve got 42 million reasons to move, that’s pretty good. [Reporter: And he had McDavid.] I would think that Kopitar’s a pretty good selling point too, but at the end of the day, it’s about money. I don’t think that was a major factor in it.

On whether Derek Forbort has been taking advantage of playing alongside Drew Doughty:
I’m really happy with all our defensemen. I mean, we have a really good young defense. If we put McNabb in our defense, I’d take those six and do it for 10 years. It’s pretty good.

On whether Anze Kopitar will miss tonight’s game:
He’s close, but you know what? It’s up to Kopi now. He’s with the team, so it’s just kind of up to Kopi.

On Marian Gaborik breaking his foot at the World Cup:
He did it in the second period in the game prior to the finals, and it didn’t even bother him. We texted each other after the game, and he woke up the next morning, and he had to put his foot in the pail. And he was actually ahead of schedule. I’m not really looking at him for another – the first week of December is what they told us originally, so he’s back skating and is skating with us, so that’s good.

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