Reply To: Articles

[hockeygod]

Flames buzzing about Darryl Sutter’s link to L.A.
“(Coaching) is where Darryl’s niche is,” says brother Brent

By SCOTT CRUICKSHANK, Calgary Herald December 14, 2011

Craig Conroy remembers it very clearly.

He remembers sitting in the dressing room — it’s the first intermission of a game against the San Jose Sharks — and watching as Steve Montador gets absolutely roasted by the new boss.

He remembers standing up, interrupting the tirade, blasting the blaster.

He remembers not getting another shift that night.

“I probably should have just shut up, but I didn’t,” Conroy, chuckling, is saying during Tuesday’s morning skate at the Bridgestone Arena. “You know when you get fed up with stuff? Then I’m thinking, I’m not going to play at all. How stupid am I?”

But next game out?

He gets a tonne of ice time.

This is Conroy’s point — that, yes, Darryl Sutter’s whip cracks louder than most, but it never turns into a grudge.

“From that moment on, I knew that anything Darryl did wasn’t personal,” says Conroy, now a member of the Flames’ braintrust. “This is the way he coaches. As soon as players find out that it’s not personal when he’s coming at you . . . it’s just about hockey, winning. He’s a great coach. One of the best I’ve had.”

Rumours of Sutter’s imminent hiring by the Los Angeles Kings had the rink buzzing Tuesday.

Could it be true?

Might the Kings, freshly shed of Terry Murray, hire Sutter?

Makes sense. After all, Los Angeles general manager Dean Lombardi and Sutter go back to their days in San Jose.

And the thoughts of many observers is that Sutter, while not a great general manager (enough said), is, in fact, a very good coach.

With the Flames, Sutter worked the bench for 210 games, going 107-73-30. If his three years in Chicago and six in San Jose are included, his record is 409-320-131.

“To me, (coaching) is where Darryl’s niche is,” said Flames coach Brent Sutter, the younger brother. “I believe it’s something Darryl’s always wanted to continue to do. When he was coaching, he was a good coach.”

Which is why the Flames are perhaps not entirely thrilled by the development.

Sure, they gave the Kings permission to approach Sutter. But what happens if, in the snug Western Conference, the Jolly Rancher gets the Kings rolling?

“I think, if he gets the job, he’s going to do well, just like Ken Hitchcock is doing (in St. Louis),” says Conroy. “You know how Darryl is — he gets a lot out of guys. The team’s going to do well with Darryl . . . they’d have success. It’s too bad they’re in the west.

“If it does happen, there’ll be some intense games between the Flames and Los Angeles.”

All four dates remain — Jan. 14 and March 28 at the Scotiabank Saddledome; Jan. 19 and Feb. 18 at the Staples Center.

“It’s hard to say you wish him the best because I imagine they’ll be fighting us . . . there’s only so many (playoff) spots,” says Jarome Iginla. “He’s a very intense guy, but he’s also a very smart hockey guy. As a coach, he’s demanding — probably runs in the family.

“When it was going bad, everybody — literally, everybody — took the brunt of it at some point. But every day wasn’t a whip. Certainly there are days when he may not love you, or vice versa . . . but I’ve only got good things to say about him as a coach.”

Hired by the Flames on Dec. 28, 2002 — yes, the same date as last season’s dismissal — Sutter coached three seasons: mopping up after Greg Gilbert was canned; taking the team to its first playoff berth in seven years (and to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final) in 2003-04; capturing the Northwest Division in 2005-06, the first post-lockout season.

Conroy says it is Sutter’s in-game touch that makes him such a shrewd bench-boss.

“Darryl had a knack for putting guys out and getting something big to happen,” he says. “Ville Nieminen. Or Chris Clark. It’s easy to put Jarome out, but it’s the other guys. Stephane Yelle. We had success with maybe not the best teams, but he got as much as he could out of every single guy.”

The day he arrived in Calgary, Sutter, after being introduced to the players in the dressing room, politely asked the team’s brass to leave so he could address the players.

“He wanted to be with just his team,” recalls Conroy. “He just kind of laid it out, ‘This is what it’s going to be like, where we’re going to go, how we’re going to do it.’ It was a very short meeting. And away we went. Darryl’s good. He’s quick.

“He can push the right buttons at the right time. You knew what your role was. If you did it? Great. If you didn’t? You heard about it.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."