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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v COYOTESMay 12, 2012Willie MitchellRob ScuderiJarret StollDarryl SutterPHOENIX, ARIZONA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Rob, you have been preparing and talking about this series for a while. You're finally on the road practicing in the building, it's the day before the game. Does it finally feel normal? ROB SCUDERI: Yeah, I think I can't speak for everyone, but just for myself. It's nice to just get back to the routine a little bit. While the season is still going on, you want to keep it going on, you don't want too long a break. It's nice to have a bit of recuperation time. But after seven days, I think we're all pretty much ready to play. Q. Willie, when you decided to sign with the Kings a couple years ago you had offers from other teams. You saw a lot of promise in this team in L.A. Obviously right now they're living up to what you saw in this team. WILLIE MITCHELL: Absolutely. You get older in your career, you want to be somewhere where there's a good group. Yeah, we spoke about that before. I think it's a great young team. We're starting to play to our ability. Obviously have a shot here. One of four teams left for a crack at it all. Enjoying it. It's been a lot of fun. I think we're seeing our core group and our young players start to mature and that's why we're sitting here. Q. Jarret, can you talk about the challenge you face with their net minder, how you try to break through when a goalie is that strong? JARRET STOLL: Yeah, he covers a lot of net. He plays big. He's very athletic, too. He's obviously a good athlete. We're going to have to shoot as many possible shots at him, get second‑chance opportunities, make him work, make him move side to side. It's going to have to be a pretty good shot to beat him clean. He's pretty much like our goaltender. Everybody knows that. We have to make it hard on him. Like any good goalie, make him work a lot, make it tough by getting a lot of shots, be around the crease, get all three guys ending up at the crease, you know, be hungry. Q. Willie and Rob, can you both touch on the balance that you have on the blueline. Everybody talks about Quick, rightfully so, but the balance that is there. ROB SCUDERI: I think each pair has their own chemistry. We had that for a while. Since the pairs have been set like this, each guy understands how to play with each other. When you look almost beyond that, you can see we have a good mix of different types of defensemen. Mitchie and I kill penalties, try to shut down other top players. Then we have Drew, who's my number one guy who can pretty much do anything and do it very well. We have some guys that can PK, some guys that can just do power play, whether it be secondary or be on the first unit. I just think it's a good mix and a good group. WILLIE MITCHELL: Same thing. He covered it all. I think we all feel, I guess, really comfortable with each other, really trust each other back there. For the most part we've had our pairings together for a long time now. I think each pairing has a lot of trust for each other, the ability to get the job done. When you play in front of a good goaltender like we have, it allows us to trust what we're doing as well in front of him. When you do that, you're in a pretty good spot and you usually limit the other team's chances. As a group, we collectively do that, like Rob said, through committee, everyone bringing their own personal strength and identity to our core. Hopefully we can continue to do that. Q. Trying to get something through the net now, Tippett described it trying to make it muddy in front of the net, mud winning out, do you see that on film with these guys? WILLIE MITCHELL: I think this time of year it's just what it is. It's tough to get pucks in the net. They do it. We do it. You look at the other teams left, everyone at this time of year is prepared to do anything at all costs to limit chances on your own net and get in front of pucks. This time of year, you talk to most teams, what do you do? Every team that's left, what do they have? Great goaltender. No one's left without a great goaltender. You have to try to get pucks to the net or to traffic around the net. From there that's usually when you get the broken coverage, create some second‑chance opportunities. That's how you're going to have to score with the great goalies that are left so far. Q. (No microphone.) ROB SCUDERI: I think it's been more at a premium since we've had the rule changes. A lot of freedom on the offensive players, a lot of talented guys can get their shots off. Instead of hooking or holding them so they can't get them off, it's put your stick in position and possibly get a block. If you can't get your stick on the puck, you're trying to block the shot. I think it's a product of the rule changes more than anything else. JARRET STOLL: I think good puck movement, good passing, slapping pucks around in the offensive zone gets guys out of position. Every coach's emphasis is on lanes, lanes, lanes, making sure you're in the lanes. You don't see a lot of shots being blocked anymore where guys are sliding and laying themselves flat on the ice like eight, nine, 10 years ago. You're seeing guys up in the lane, it's very hard to get it by them. I think that's maybe a big difference. Q. About the balance on the defense. From a forward's perspective, is it almost to the point that it doesn't matter what pair is on the ice because there is that balance there, they're all different, but they're all similar in a way? ROB SCUDERI: That's totally right. They all move the puck well. They can all get up and down the ice and see the ice. When you're out there, up front, doesn't really matter who is out there, just maybe if Drew is out there, he's jumping up in a play. If Marty is out there, and Slav. As a core, we're all told to do the same things. We want to get everybody up in the play, everybody involved offensively. They all got great shots back there, so that's not an issue. It's a strong, strong group back there. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach Sutter. Q. Darryl, a week to watch lots of video. I know the teams are different if for no other reasons the playoff journeys are different. What do you expect tomorrow in Game1? COACH SUTTER: They've been a team that's won at home early, first games, so they got lots of energy in here with the crowd. It will be awesome, but it will be tough early. Q. With a few days between series, what did you most want to get accomplished? COACH SUTTER: Yeah, I think some of the guys are banged up. Get a couple days. Especially two or three of the older guys. It was good. So now it's the reset button. You know, always when there's time, doesn't matter if it's regular season or playoffs, whatever it is, if you ever get four, five days, you're always concerned about the emotional level of the group always. I'm sure they're the same way as us. Q. How important was it for you guys to come in here a day early, get a practice in here, and do you think it enables your group to get back to feeling like a playoffs series is about to start? COACH SUTTER: I think it's good, first off. But I think the most important part of that is because we play an early game tomorrow, right? You get guys that haven't maybe practiced in this building or been on the ice in this building, or not very often. That's the most important part. I don't think it does anything for you in terms of preparation coming in early, less than an hour over here. That was the concern. The most important part is, is because it's an early game tomorrow. Q. Two of your defensemen were up here, Willie and Rob. They both talked about balance on the blueline. How important has that been? Everybody talks about Jonathan Quick. The balance you have in your three pairs to enable you to get to where you are right now. COACH SUTTER: Touch wood, we've been able to use three pairs. If that's what balance is... Q. Darryl, is Phoenix a team that's a little harder to target, maybe one or two players, because they maybe have such balance scoring, not one go‑to line or guy? COACH SUTTER: I think they're similar to us. I still think they're led by Shane. That's a huge part of it if you look at shots in the playoffs. I think Vermette has three power play goals. I think they're led by their captain big‑time up front. Him along with those veteran guys is going to be huge in this series to manage them or handle them. Q. Darryl, the Predators admitted the first two games in this building last series, they got away from who they were. What is your message to your team? COACH SUTTER: Well, I don't think that we've gotten away from our game for three or four months, so I can't imagine it should change now. I think the familiarity with being in the division is important, too. Most of these guys have played against each other a lot. I think they know how both sides are going to play. The coaching staff, that's what we expect out of our group, for sure. They're the home team for a reason, so... FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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