Kings look ahead: Darryl Sutter’s return to Alberta
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
At least Kings Coach Darryl Sutter is getting this homecoming stuff out of the way.
San Jose? Done.
Chicago? Done.
Calgary? On deck.
Naturally, his return to Alberta will be getting the most attention, and rightly so. The famous Sutter family is from Viking, Alberta. His long association with the Flames ended a little more than a year ago when he stepped down as their general manager. Brent Sutter is still behind the bench as the Flames head coach.
So when the Kings play at Calgary on Saturday night, it will be brother vs. brother. Again.
The subject came up after Kings practice on Sunday during a wide-ranging talk between Sutter and myself, mostly about his homecoming week, Calgary experience and family ties.
Darryl satisfied one line of questioning about Brent, fairly quickly, about the current state of their relationship.
‘I left a message for him this morning,’ Sutter said. ‘They got their [butts] kicked in Boston and then to bounce back yesterday. That’s got a lot to do with coaching. That’s a good mark for him.’
Darryl has been down the brother-brother road many times. He has coached four of his siblings in the NHL, coached against brother Brian when Darryl was in Chicago and Brian was in St. Louis.
‘You just separated it,’ Darryl said. ‘It was very simple. When we were at the rink: coach, player. If there was anything in the family, you could separate it. It’s easy to do. When Brent was hired in Calgary, everybody talked about it ... it wasn’t like we were ... it’s easy to separate it. And it’s nobody’s business.’
That last remark was made without rancor, more matter of fact than anything else.
‘We’re used to it. Even when we were playing against each other, everybody always asked us about that,’ Sutter said of competing against his brothers. ‘We were so close in age, us boys, we played against each other our whole lives. It wasn’t like somebody was better.
‘So you did it your whole life. It was just on a different stage. That’s all it was.’
RELATED:
Maybe a little outrage can jumpstart the Kings
Kings think outside the net to address scoring issues
-- Lisa Dillman
