October 6 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On the health of Jake Muzzin and Matt Greene:
Muzz is ready, yep. Or, he says he’s ready. [Reporter: Greene not?] No. Not ready. He’s hurt. It’s what I said when Greener got hurt. He had missed, what, five or six days of camp sick, and that was his first game, that he got hurt in. Other than that – what did he play, five minutes? [Reporter: Five minutes, yeah.] So that’s basically his whole activity. And even today out there, I kept saying, ‘Are you supposed to be doing this?’ It’s good. We get to take a look at Schultzy and Brayden. One of them guys wouldn’t have been in the lineup. Now they both are. [Reporter: That versatility pays off, too. Marty can play both sides. Ehrhoff can-] Marty’s like Lewie. You guys think I play favorites, but Marty’s like our guy on the back end that does the same thing that Lewie does up front. You put him wherever you want. He gives you the most he’s got, all the time. Maximizes his skill set. It doesn’t matter what side and where, or who.

On Anze Kopitar now compared to one season ago:
Kopi got hurt last year early in the year, if you look at it. Gaborik and Kopitar were both hurt. Going into last season, the only thing I take out of last season, we were really good in the first three months with those guys being hurt a lot. [Reporter: How has he looked in training camp? Like his typical self? What are you noticing in his game?] You notice Kopi every day because he’s such a good player. He had a tough year last year, and a lot of it was predicated because he had played a lot of hockey, and he got hurt. He still had maybe 50 assists or something, I don’t know. He’s a pretty good player. Easy player to coach. [Reporter: He said the chemistry with Lucic isn’t quite there yet.] You’re looking for it to be really clicking and working, and you see it in practice. You see the signs where it’s really sharp, and then you see in games where it hasn’t quite been as [sharp]. And they haven’t played together, that’s the problem. Even the three games that they played together – we didn’t play Gabby, because he’s one of the older guys. We played him less in the preseason because he’s really fit, and just didn’t feel like he had to [play]. So they really haven’t played together as a line. And the old thing, where everybody says ‘Boston and L.A. are similar-type teams,’ well really, they’re not. You look at Looch had always played with Krejci, and now he’s playing with Kopi. You look at it as skilled guys, well, one’s a right-handed guy that does a lot in the middle of the ice, and one’s a left-handed guy that drives with pucks, goes around guys and makes plays from the goal more, so it’s an adjustment. It’s so easy to say on paper that they’re a good fit, well, that’s got to play itself out, and it goes back to your question, quite honest, about ‘how has he looked?’ Well, if you go back to last year, the line that carried us while we were so successful the first month was the Carter line, so it puts the onus on them, too. It’s almost the same thing. Hey, those guys have played together, and Tanner’s missed a lot of time, and they have to have a good start for us, because the other guys might not be as on as you think. [Reporter: They got off to a great start, and then kind of struggled on the road a little bit.] Yep. Those two guys got hurt, Kopitar and Gaborik, when we went on the road the first long trip, so our opponent on the road got to basically shut down Carts.

On having lost several veteran presences in the dressing room:
I think the guys that wanted that opportunity have done a good job to this point, and it’s a natural – hey, Jarret, Willie, Robyn and Mike. It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks. We know what they meant to our room. In our room, we know. For our team to maintain or get better, there are other players in here that have to absolutely take that role in our room. [Reporter: Seems like certainly Drew is prepared for that.] Yep. Those guys I talk about – Drew, Lewie, Marty – they’re all at the part where they’ve won two championships here. Those guys are all logical and real, real candidates for that. They care, and they want that. Quickie. I’ve already told him at times in the preseason that he was dressing because we needed him in the room. He wasn’t playing, but he was dressing, and we needed him in the room so you start building that profile.

-Stick tap to Josh Cooper for providing audio