Darryl Sutter’s past would indicate that he values grit. A glance at his 2003-04 Calgary Flames team, which made a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Finals, reveals a roster with a lot of grinders. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that so far during his stint with the Kings, Sutter has increased the responsibilities of his fourth-line players, particularly Kyle Clifford, Colin Fraser and Trent Hunter. For instance, starting with the Anaheim game, Fraser’s ice time went from 6:59 to 9:23 to 10:11 to 12:56 (it dipped to 9:37 last night). Sutter has even put the fourth line out for special-teams duty briefly. Sutter comes with the reputation as a coach who likes to roll four lines when possible, and it doesn’t appear as though that’s going to change in Los Angeles.
SUTTER: “I think you’ve just got to recognize and have a trust in that combination on your fourth line. And then recognize what’s going on on your bench lots of times, too. It’s the style of game, or maybe how another line is playing. You look at a guy like Fraser, who, really, we’ve swung him through the lineup pretty good and he has given us (good play). The game before, he played several shifts with Kopitar and Brown because I wanted those guys to play more of an abrasive game. We talked about being a good four-line team (against Chicago). It’s simple. That gives them some more responsibility if they’re on their game. If the top skill guys are really going, you want to give them big minutes, but we also use those guys to kill penalties, Anze and Brownie and Richie, so with Kopitar’s minutes, maybe there are times when you want to give him a little (rest).
“There are times, like the first five or six minutes in the second period, when they didn’t play that much. That wasn’t about how they were playing. It was just for their benefit. You know, it’s not a rite of passage that the top players get to go every third shift, or the top defensemen. I think we cut Drew’s minutes back (against Chicago), because I thought Johnson and Greenie were going to be important players in the game, give us a little more of the physical part of the game. I know the mantra is that we have to score more goals, but there are parts of our system that we’re trying to do differently, in terms of defensive pressure to get more pucks, and we have some guys that aren’t there yet. So even though they’re high-end guys, they can do a lot better job, in those parts of the game, to create better individual numbers for themselves.’’
SCORE MORE THAN TWO GOALS PLEASE. I like this hands on approach and I feel the players are responding to it.
Now let’s get Vancouver tomorrow night.
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I’ll take 1 goal with a 3rd shutout in a row
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Not thrilled with the fact that the Kings go halfway across the country two play two tough games back to back and then get home to have a road team rested and waiting for them…the road is supposed hard for the ROAD team…Kings have got to get this PP going! If not scoring then at least having the other teams’ goalie standing on his head…I think they had six chances on the PP last night, including that 5 on 3, and really didn’t generate much in the way of prime scoring chances…must do better than that!
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Somebody tell this guy this team doesn’t do ADJUSTMENTS on the fly. Round here… we mix up the lines. So don’t start with all this crazy talk about doing things differently.
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CB14 Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
@Helvetica, LOL
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wavesinair Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
@Helvetica,
Exactly. The players are probably wondering what team their on. Regardless of what KIND of system the Kings are playing, we now have a coach how sees intricacies that, quite frankly, many fans have been pointing out for a long time. Sometimes it takes a different perspective to get guys doing things -within the same system- that they never would have otherwise.
If anyone was wondering if there’s a leader of this team, look no further than the quotes above. It’s night and day IMO and I’m a fan of TM. He could only take them so far.
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I want a reg win. No giving the Canucks a point! Hope they get up like they did against Hawks and can give JQ a lead. A one goal lead and JQ and deliver a win. Although, I would love to see these guys bust open the game and a couple Canucks faces tomorrow night. GKG!
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We’ll be there at Staples tomorrow satting down anyone with a canuck jersey to make sure they’re not carrying flamables or torching toold…:)))
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haven’t see ny grit on this team in a loooong time.
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Patting down
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Good news is Sutter finally got some practice time in with the team today, especially with the PP.
Give it time guys. That arcane system we had before was not implemented over a week or a month, it’ll take time to make the subtle changes required for this team to compete at the highest level. What’s important is to see incremental improvement and so far I think we have.
GkG!
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Dunno, sounds like basically he is saying bring your A game or minutes will drop immediately no matter who you are. Works for me.
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Gmo Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
@KC23,
Ditto
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As I’ve been saying Kopi especially needs a grinder on his line as Darryl indicates more grinding.
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40YearKingsFan Reply:
December 31st, 2011 at 8:23 am
@Harty, Other than Clifford and to some extent Frazer, who on our team would you classify as a “grinder”? For instance I hear Hunter referred to as a grinder but I don’t see it. I see a grinder as, of course, a guy who works in the corners but does many other things that keep the other team off balance and in many cases irritated. Like when there’s a pileup in front of their goalie, a true grinder will always be in the middle and usually the cause of it. A grinder is the guy who gets under the skin of the opposing goalie not like an agitator, but based on position or real estate. A grinder is the guy who makes it a point to go and hang out where the opposing team least wants him to be. When a grinder is on the ice, any whistle or play stoppage will be followed by a scrum with plenty of face washes to go around. He just makes the other team uncomfortable.
Is that a correct definition? Am I missing something?
And back to my question, who do we have that is willing and able to make his living doing that?
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Team is heading in the right direction. Work ethic is strong! The goals will come with hard work.
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