March 22 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether the response to hit on Doughty in Calgary was “the correct response”:
What was it, meaning ‘the response?’ [Reporter: To tell Tkachuk that you can’t get away with hitting your franchise player.] I didn’t see that there was – scrum down in the corner. I’m not even sure how it was. I think there was a bunch of guys in there. That wasn’t really [inaudible]. I was looking at Drew.

On the emphasis for the rest of the season, given it had been getting two points to this point:
Yeah, we have to stay really focused on that. Playing Winnipeg tomorrow. We’ve had two good games against them. Still win tomorrow.

On whether the Kings were challenged early by the speed of Calgary and Edmonton:
I think the Calgary game was clearly that, but the Edmonton game, I don’t know if you were there at the start, but really, we had a really good first period. They scored on their chances, we didn’t. In fact, if you looked at the very first shift, we were really good. You’ve just got to remember, Jon, Connor McDavid, next to Sidney, is the best player in the league, so just remember that, right? You’ve really got to pay attention to that when you come to games. It’s a great honor to go on the road and watch great players. You should do that. [Reporter: Was there anything lacking in the team’s pace then, in the Calgary game, that you saw-] The first period, I just said that, definitely it was. [Reporter: Yeah, but does that come from five-man units?] There’s different elements to it, always. I mean, you evaluate top players, or if they’re playing fast, most top players play really fast, most top players play really hard, and if you look at the league now, it’s generally not a slow player that slows your team down, it’s when a fast player that is a fast player is not playing that way. The puck works a lot of times for you. It’s a big difference playing home and road for a lot of our players. It’s no excuse, but there are some inexperienced guys on our team at strong positions that still have a lot to do in terms of their preparation skills, and there’s a point where that’s their responsibility. Otherwise they’re not improving.

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