We are going to find out very quickly what this Calgary Flames team is or isn’t made of.
When Darryl Sutter was re-introduced to the Calgary media 11 years after he was let go as GM of the team and 15 years after the last time he served as head coach, he mentioned coming back to deal with “unfinished business.”
But as the Flames try to find consistency and an identity, it’s fair to wonder why Sutter? It’s been four years since he was behind an NHL bench and seven years since he won a playoff round. The game has changed wildly since he last found success and the amount of coaches left who we’d label an “old school taskmaster” are dwindling.
Will his message get across to this group and will his style be effective in a more offensive league — a more wild and crazy division and situation.
“There’s fundamentals that never change in terms of taking care of your own end and shot volume, puck possession, and things like that. When I got to LA we used the analytic part of it very effectively.” Sutter said Friday. “Tampa quietly changed their style of game by bringing in certain types of players, having a better defence, getting star players to buy in. They went from a contender to winning championships.”
Sutter has never missed the playoffs in his first full season with a team, but when he last joined the Flames partway through 2002-03, his .511 points percentage wasn’t enough of a turnaround to reach the post-season. They did make it to the Stanley Cup Final the next season though.
Sutter has coached parts of 18 seasons in the NHL and while most of those (11) came in the pre-cap era, his greatest success came on this side of history.
Now, with a three-year contract, he’s tasked with bringing an 11-11-2 Flames team that sits two points out of a playoff spot back to prominence and set them up for playoff success. His way will be different than Geoff Ward’s and how the players respond is now the key to their season and future.
Will Sutter be the right hire this time? Here’s a look back at each of his previous four stops as a head coach in the NHL.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS: 1992-1995
Sutter’s first job on an NHL bench was as an associate with the Hawks under Mike Keenan. He was with them on their run to the 1992 Stanley Cup Final in that capacity and was promoted to the head coaching position that same off-season when Keenan was asked to focus on GM duties. Keenan didn’t last two months into the next season until he was dismissed, but Sutter coached in Chicago for three years.
Jeremy Roenick was the team’s early-20s rising star, but it was mostly an experienced core with Chris Chelios, Steve Larmer, Steve Smith, and brother Brent the next-highest scorers after Roenick. Sutter didn’t miss the playoffs with these teams, but he couldn’t get them back to the final again.
In his first year with the Hawks, Sutter did squeeze regular-season improvement. The Hawks went from an 87-point team to a 106-point team and first place in the Norris Division. But in a Round 1 rematch with the Blues, Chicago was swept.
In his second season at the helm, the Hawks stepped back to an 87-point team in the newly formed Central Division and were ousted in the first round by the Maple Leafs in six games.
The Hawks had a slightly better pace in the 48-game 1994-95 season and finished third in the Central. This time, Sutter led them to his first couple of series wins, a seven-gamer over the Leafs and a sweep of the Canucks. In the conference final, they lost to an emerging modern dynasty in the Detroit Red Wings, who then were swept in the Cup final.
After that playoff run Sutter stepped aside from coaching to be with his family back at the Viking, Alta. farm.
While Sutter is returning to the Flames in 2021 four years after last working an NHL bench, it’s not the first time he’s taken a multi-year break. After leaving the Hawks he took two years off before returning to…
SAN JOSE SHARKS: 1997-2002
Sutter was Patrick Marleau’s first NHL head coach in 1997 after he was chosen second overall. These Sharks were still relatively new, just seven years into their existence, with a couple playoff upsets already pulled off.
But it had been two seasons since San Jose qualified for the post-season when Sutter was hired. Here you had a young Owen Nolan and Jeff Friesen leading the offence, but also with a mix of veterans.
San Jose wasn’t great in Year 1 under Sutter, but did see a 16-point improvement and reached the playoffs as the eighth seed, where they lost in Round 1 to the Dallas Stars. The Sharks saw a regular-season points increase every year under Sutter, as some young players developed and the likes of Teemu Selanne, Vincent Damphousse, Brad Stuart and Evgeni Nabokov were added.
Sutter’s Sharks got past the first round twice, though never reached a conference final. His best playoff run was in his last season, when San Jose reached the second round and lost a 1-0 decision in Game 7 to Colorado.
San Jose started slow the next season and Sutter was fired in December.
It didn’t take long to find his next job…
CALGARY FLAMES: 2002-2006
Before December of 2002 was out, Sutter landed his next head coaching gig with Calgary.
The Flames had a slow start of their own and needed a new voice. Sutter put up a better record after taking over, but Calgary still missed the post-season by a wide margin.
In Year 2 of Sutter, Jarome Iginla drove the offence of this gritty and grizzled roster, with a dash of quickness in the mix. They added excellent goaltending, too, when the Flames traded with Sutter’s former team to get Miikka Kiprusoff.
This season would also mark the last before the 2004-05 lockout and a complete overhaul of the game. This was the last season of the Dead Puck Era and these Flames were well-built for the playoff style of that time. They finished sixth in the West, but got through Vancouver in seven, top-seed Detroit in six and even beat the Sharks one season after they fired Sutter.
The Lightning knocked off the Flames in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final, which of course leaves a haunting memory of Martin Gelinas’ “no goal.”
When the Flames and Sutter returned from the 2004-05 lockout the whole landscape was different, but Calgary still thrived and had an exciting new rookie in Dion Phaneuf. They finished atop the Northwest Division with 103 points, but were upset in Round 1 by Anaheim.
Sutter stepped down as head coach after that season to focus on GM duties, a role he remained in until 2010.
LOS ANGELES KINGS: 2011-17
The situation Sutter first walked into with the Kings is in some ways similar to the one he now faces in Calgary again.
The Kings had been rebuilding for some time before Sutter arrived in 2011 and GM Dean Lombardi was taking plenty of heat. They had been eliminated in the first round of back-to-back playoffs and then started 2011-12 slowly. Sutter was hired 33 games into that season as Lombardi’s potential last hire — if it went wrong, the GM could have been next.
But the Kings became a quick powerhouse. They didn’t score much, but defended extremely well, had solid netminding, and controlled shots better than almost anyone. They qualified for the playoffs as the No. 8 seed, but had gone 25–13–11 after Sutter became head coach and subsequently dominated their way to a Stanley Cup, losing just four times in the post-season.
“Neither one was in a playoff spot and we fought like hell to make it (in Los Angeles),” Sutter said about comparing that start with the Kings to what’s ahead in Calgary. “There’s a lot of similarities to start with top players. That team was probably more veteran at the time, but at the same time we had to get young players in the right frame of mind and they were star players and still are. To think about what it takes to win, and to prepare and take care of yourself.
“When I went to LA you had 40-something games left so you had longer,” Sutter continued. “There was more of a process. We have to try and speed that up as much as we can.”
Throughout Sutter’s time in Los Angeles the Kings were Corsi darlings. Say what you will about analytics vs. old school and where the perception is of Sutter along those lines, but by underlying measures this team was a statistical juggernaut before it was cool. Los Angeles made three straight conference finals and won two Stanley Cups with Sutter, but eventually the well ran dry.
Even in Sutter’s last season with the Kings, when they missed the playoffs for the second time in three years, they still led the league in Corsi For percentage and were the best defensive team in the league, but the goals didn’t come. Injuries, roster attrition and maybe some regression bit the Kings, but Sutter guided them through peak years after taking over at a tumultuous time.
Flames fans hope a similar route will be followed here.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
