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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: KINGS v BLACKHAWKSMay 19, 2014Darryl SutterCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach. Q. News out of Montréal is that Price is out for that series. How fine a line is that from both sides, the attacking and defending sides, to keep people off the goaltender? COACH SUTTER: Yeah, I think it's really important. I think always when your goalie gets hit, you're defending your goalie. As attacking players, you're telling your players to go to the net. Such a fine line. If you look at the Montréal play, they're both right. If you look at our play last night, they're both right. One guy's trying to score, which is what we try to do ever since we played the game, and the goalie's trying to stop the puck, so... I'm just glad we're not talking about it in a sense, not that it was a goal or not a goal, I'm glad we're not talking about that today because our goalie was hurt. Not that their Jonathan was trying to run into our Jonathan, just the point that our goalie wasn't hurt. Q. In terms of fitting in with the style you play in L.A., where have you seen the biggest growth in Gaborik's game? COACH SUTTER: Good players fit in everywhere. It's not like we have a special way we play. I mean, teams are still playing a 200‑foot game. Marian fits in because he plays a 200‑foot game. Q. Joel was talking about the challenge of having Jonathan's line up against Anze's line, both lines of capable of doing all things. Are you okay with that matchup? Does it work for you as well? COACH SUTTER: Well, typically Kopy plays with Gabby, and typically Hossa plays for Toews. Don't call them lines. Did you know that Bickell was on that line? Did you know that Brown was on the Kopitar line? So don't call them lines. You got to go another step farther. If you're just saying Toews versus Kopitar, well, then don't worry about who's playing with them, I mean... Q. You've had two emotional series against divisional rivals. Didn't seem your team had that deep emotion like you had against the Ducks and Sharks? COACH SUTTER: Yesterday? Gees, I thought we played a hell of a game. Take advantage of our opportunities, we're standing here today up 1‑0. There was one scrum. The one scrum there was, if we were bitching and moaning about calls today, the one scrum there was that we got called on, too bad they couldn't review it. Q. Speaking of review, where do you stand on reviewing any incidents of contact with the goaltender or obstruction? COACH SUTTER: As long as it doesn't hold the game up, and quite honestly I'm really comfortable with the process the way it works now, most of it does come from Toronto, unless it's a definitive call on the ice. If you look at yesterday by the rule of the book, it is the right call. Whether you like it or not, it is. The only reason that they're reviewing it is to see if it was in before the contact, so... What is that process? I think, we've come so far, I don't know, other than to take it right out of the official's hands, which is not what I want, what anybody wants. I mean, that was the intent of the two‑referee system, things like that, give a little bit more power to the linesmen in situations like that, so they go and talk about it quick. That's what they did. You know, there was a lot of talk this past summer about throwing the flag. But our game is not stop, start. It's more on the fly. So the more that you pull those situations into it, the more it sort of spaces your game out. I'm not for that. Q. Two of your brothers played for the Islanders when they were considered a dynasty. There were other dynasties. Now we're in an era of salary caps and parity. You're back here and the Blackhawks are back here. What has allowed your teams to do what you're not supposed to do in this era? COACH SUTTER: I think you have to adjust to the way the game is changing and playing. I think you have to adjust to different lineups as you go forward. I think Chicago, they won it last year. If you look at the last time they won it, the massive overhaul on their team, probably other than their young stars. If you look at them, you still have to be able to do that. You have to be able to adjust to the game, adjust to the rules, adjust to the style. I think that's a big reason why we're both in the Conference Finals again. Whether we can adjust enough to beat the Stanley Cup champions, I don't know. Q. To clarify, did you feel like Bollig took a dive there? COACH SUTTER: No. Q. You said you thought your team played a heck of a game yesterday. Was it one of those games where it felt like one of the mistakes you made one at your net, failures to clear your puck on the power‑play goal, turnovers led up to the next two? COACH SUTTER: There are turnovers during the game. There's a little bit of this thing going on in the playoffs about turning the puck over. They are mistakes. You can't just hit the button that says 'perfect'. There are little turnovers. That's going to happen. You're going to rely on not using those little turnovers or little mistakes as reasons why you lost. Teams are pretty close, I think. Q. Kopitar and Toews, what makes these guys play so well in this 200‑foot game? Is that in the genes, in the teaching on the way up, getting it at the NHL level? Every coach I think prizes these guys. How do they get to be who they are? COACH SUTTER: If you're just talking about those two kids, they've both played on big stages. Obviously Canada is probably more familiar with Toews because of all the stuff he's represented from his country. If you look at probably I'm going to say the process those guys go through their whole lives, they're dominant players at their age group all the way up, whether they're 12, 14, 16. All the way up they're dominant players, which means they're always ready for this stage when they get there. There's a lot of direction, obviously because of the team thing, playing together, and to some extent coaching. But I think at the end of the day those guys are special players because there's something special there. Q. The Blackhawks have a history of containing an opponent's top‑scoring threats in the playoffs. How much of a challenge do you think it will be to get Kopitar and Gaborik against this particular opponent that has this particular history? COACH SUTTER: I can only base it on last night's game. We had a lot of good opportunities. I think you have to give Crawford a lot of credit last night. Q. How would you evaluate Willie Mitchell's first game back?  I haven't asked you about Robyn lately. COACH SUTTER: Robyn hasn't started skating yet. And I thought Willie, I asked him to find out if he was going to be able ‑‑ I mean, he plays the left side, if he was going to be able to play against guys that come down that right side on him. And not just play, we're trying to win the hockey game, whether he can slide in and do that. I thought he was solid. I think everybody thought that. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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