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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSJune 3, 2013Darryl SutterLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. The health of your club right now, is that in the utmost part of your mind because of all the injuries you sustained? COACH SUTTER: Well, we're certainly used to it. We made a lot of decisions literally game to game, or last night made it between warmup and game. It's something we're used to. We've handled it really well. It becomes a factor the farther you go because of the quality of play. We've handled it really well as a group. Q. Talk about the effect of three games in four nights. COACH SUTTER: I think somebody asked after the game, we have five games in 10 days coming up. It's taxing on the guys. For sure it is. We chose to come home last night. By the time you shut her down, you shut her down at 2:30 in the morning. Today you're just trying to get close to full again. It's hard. Q. Is there any explanation for the disparity between the record at home and on the road? COACH SUTTER: We played really well in Chicago. We haven't played a game at home yet. Q. Just in the playoffs in general, such a huge disparity. COACH SUTTER: Every game we lost, every time we lost, we lost every game2‑1 till last night. I don't think that's a huge gap in performance or play at all. We've had trouble scoring, not just playoffs. We've had trouble scoring, going back six games in the season, we had trouble scoring. Even though we finished fifth in the conference. We saw it last year in the playoffs, too. It's not a home/road disparity at all. You know what, we're a good hockey club. We're not surprising anybody. There's no upsets now. We're the team that's trying to surprise the team that finished first overall. If you look at the teams we played so far in the playoffs, home‑ice teams. That's part of it. Q. The struggles of Brown and Kopitar. COACH SUTTER: They struggled offensively, for sure. That's not me jumping out making a statement. That is a fact. That's a statistical fact. Q. This team is used to coming back from adversity. Does that help? COACH SUTTER: I don't know if it helps, but it doesn't hurt. I don't know if it helps. We'll see at the end of the game if it helps. We're going to play the same way. We're not going to say, Oh, pressure, adversity. That's why we're a good hockey club. That doesn't come into play. We know how our team can play. We need guys to get better a little bit if they can, if they can play through what's wrong with them, find something in their game a little bit more, things we can help them with. That makes them a little better. That's how we'll stay alive. Q. When you talked about Mike last night, you said to him, If you're not 100%, you're not going, has that (indiscernible)? COACH SUTTER: That's a general attitude in sport. I would say it's not an evolvement. That's a player you trust. You know how he plays. I told him, he was fine all day, but I think once he got to the United Center last night, he starts thinking about being a warrior, he starts going through his routine, you go through your meeting, then you go out for warmup. He knows himself. That's the first thing I did after warmup. It's not just for Mike. We had guys in warmup that were banged up. You got to check. You don't turn your roster in till about 16 minutes before the game. That's what we waited till. Q. 20 years ago, does that play out the same way? COACH SUTTER: Probably not, 'cause you didn't talk to yourself about it as a player. You know what, you just played. You didn't go ask somebody. Wasn't a huge staff watching you. Basically it was you and your teammates, a couple coaches. Q. (No microphone.) COACH SUTTER: I'm not sure quite that same one where it's symptom‑related. But certainly guys that are getting froze up, can't get it froze up, that sort of thing, you got to make the decision. Guys tell me whether they can play or not. You have to have the backup plan and be ready for it. That's the first thing you do. It's tough to lose a player at that time. But the first thing you have to do as a head coach is to address it as a group. It's not like Mike Richards is a guy you sort of spot in your lineup. He's a significant part of everything. If you're into matchups, faceoffs, penalty killing, last minutes, first minutes, it moves everybody around a little bit. You could say how you're going to adjust, but what you want guys to do in those situations, what they have to do, they have to be ready for it. But you're not replacing that player. Q. If Mike can't go tomorrow... COACH SUTTER: That's where Mike would have played last night, and they were our best line. The adjustments they made, how does that affect 16 minutes before the game, that line was awesome. I think Tyler was nervous early, made a couple mistakes. I think Jeff and Dustin's experience, I think they did a really good job for us. Q. Protocol still the same for Game3 for Mike? COACH SUTTER: I can't talk no more about it, quite honest. You talked about Rask and Jarret last series. Same questions you have are the same ones I have. It's not today, it's tomorrow, right? It's after activity, how they react, if they're allowed activity. There's no secret to it. It's how they react to it. That's what we do. Q. Is the approach being down two as simple as shift by shift? Is it desperation? COACH SUTTER: We're not a team that gets ahead of ourselves, down on ourselves, up on ourselves, listen to what somebody else says. We just keep it in there, stay within ourselves. Doesn't matter if we're up two, down two. You know, the other team knows they're going to have their hands full. Q. Does that same philosophy apply to Kopitar because he's been in a scoring slump? COACH SUTTER: I'm sure he's frustrated. We spend a lot of time together talking about stuff, working on stuff, trying to find little areas that he can do differently or do better. I don't lose any sleep over Kopy. He's not a guy that takes shortcuts. He does everything he can to do well. I think he handles that really well. Other than last year, he hasn't been a guy that's played much playoffs or had success at playoffs. So, you know what, it's still a great experience for him. Q. About Kopitar, what can he do better or differently? COACH SUTTER: I think it's pretty evident. When Kopy has the puck, he's a top player in the league. When he doesn't have the puck, he's a good checker. That means he could have the puck more. Quite honestly, he can support the puck better. Certainly who he plays with can feel privileged that they're playing with a top player. They should be doing everything they can to play with him. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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