I’m not as familiar with other NHL coaches as I am with Darryl Sutter, but I’d be surprised to learn of anyone being as big of a baseball fan as the Kings’ coach.
Darryl isn’t necessarily a Giants fan (though he’ll be rooting for them tonight); he’s a baseball fan. He has previously recalled watching the first ever Toronto Blue Jays game and attending Cubs games during his playing career in Chicago. Like many members of the Kings’ hockey operations, he has close ties with Ned Colletti, who was a Flyers beat writer for the Philadelphia Journal at the tail end of the Broad Street Bullies generation.
Naturally, Sutter was more than eager to talk about tonight’s Game 7, which will be only the second World Series Game 7 played over the past 12 years.
Darryl Sutter, on what he expects from tonight’s Game 7:
I don’t know what I expect, but I know who I want to win. I mean, it’s been a wild World Series. Even last night when I finished our game, I poked my head and it was 8-0. It was the fourth inning. Jeez. [Reporter: Who is it you want to win?] Giants. I’m hoping that the big boy Bumgarner, they just give him the ball. [Reporter: We’ve heard you talk about Bumgarner a little bit this year.] I said it earlier. I said that before whether they were going to make the playoffs. I said that I know that the Dodgers, we have Kershaw, and he’s probably going to win a couple major awards. But that kid is right there. And now he’s showing it. I said that before the playoffs. [Reporter: You’ve been a fan of his hitting, too.] He’s one of the old warriors. Hey, he hit four home runs this year. And he fields. He’s one of those guys that it’s like when you talk about Kershaw, you wish that you could play him at first base. Not just pitch him every fourth day, but play him, too.
I didn’t chat with many players on the team about their World Series allegiances, though I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a majority cheering on the underdogs.
“I don’t know, I kind of want to see the Royals win,” Trevor Lewis said. “I think it’d be a cool story, but it should be a big game. I’m glad it went to a Game 7.”
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