December 4 postgame quotes: Darryl Sutter

On losing in a shootout in an entertaining game:
Kind of the last shot wins. The shootout’s sort of like regulation. You know, they’re a real high-octane team. They hadn’t; done it lately, but I think that was something we addressed yesterday. They score the first goal, we still friggin’ found away to get back, get a point. Had a lead going into the third and a bad rebound goal ties it up.

On what makes Montreal difficult to defend:
They score a lot of goals. They’re in the top four or five in the league, and they get it from all four lines. Even though Weber has got, what, eight or nine goals, he’s the shooter on the back end, so it comes mostly from their forwards. It’s spread through their lineup. It’s like when you play Columbus or teams like that that have 30, 20-goal scorers playing all through their lineup.

On whether he’s concerned with the recent spike in goals against?
We go 1-1-1 in our last three games giving up three, three and four. When you look at it, really, fou against San Jose, one’s an empty netter, so it’s three. In Arizona, we showed a lot of character to score four when the scored three, and tonight we dug in and really hung in there and came back. But it’s too many goals. I mean, when you look at it, when you say, ‘we were 1-1-1 giving up three, three and four,’ that’s .500. That’s not playoffs.

On whether the upcoming break will be good for the team:
Yeah, we’ll train tomorrow – they’re working on their drives, bunker shots. On Tuesday we’ll get a good off-ice workout in and practice Wednesday. [Reporter: You going to play tomorrow?] No. [Reporter: Me neither.] If it was the middle of the summer, I might. What do they call it, scrambles? Yeah, they’re fun.

On defending the cross-ice pass to Pacioretty on Montreal’s first goal:
That was faceoff coverage. That’s between a defenseman and a winger coverage. There’s a switch there that they have to make, and our defenseman in front of the net was late making it.