Did Sutter really have to be convinced to take the LA job?

No rosy picture could be painted of the first half of the Kings 2011-12 season. Wilting under the weight of a sputtering offense, a Kings team that possessed a quality assortment of talent and utilized a standout work ethic on most nights simply wasn’t getting results.

“I do think we’re at the stage of the franchise where you’re going to be judged on wins and losses and playoff rounds,” Dean Lombardi said the day that former coach Terry Murray was fired.

The results came later that spring. Darryl Sutter, who coached his first game on December 22, 2011, led the team to a Stanley Cup on June 11, 2012 and now has a 9-1 series record through his first 62 playoff games as head coach. Not only could tomorrow’s Game 4 clinch the team’s second Stanley Cup in three seasons, it will match an NHL record for the most playoff games played by any team over a three-year span. Dallas (1998-00) and Detroit (2007-09) also played in 63 playoff games over three seasons.

As it turns out, it took perhaps a little bit of convincing to bring Darryl on board.

Was he ever close to telling Dean, “No?”

“Yup,” Sutter said. “That was the first thing I said.”

What was it that ultimately persuaded him to join the Kings?

“I think being convinced that your team had a chance or you could put the team in a position to win a championship,” he said.

As for low long that took, Sutter said that “It was quite a while.”

“If you remember, Dean was very truthful when you look back at that on the whole how he went about it. Probably the first thing I told him was, ‘You’ve got a good coach.’”

That’s a fine narrative, though it’s not necessarily a hundred percent accurate. Through emails with LA Kings Insider, Lombardi shared that the length time between the first phone call and the day Sutter was hired was due mostly to timing and family-related logistics rather than any extended courtship period.

Sutter has done masterful work behind Los Angeles bench, and in addition to the 2012 Stanley Cup and this current run, last year’s advancement to the Western Conference Final with an injury depleted squad that averaged two goals per game through the first two rounds is another fine representation of the effect he has had on this team.

“I think with Darryl, you probably all realize this, it’s mostly all business,” Justin Williams said. “There’s not much toying around, playing around. Although we have a young team, we have a pretty veteran team. We’ve been through a lot together. A team that I remember Drew saying at the start of playoffs, hates to see another team get the better of them. I think our coach is the exact same way.”