January 7 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On having experienced coaches on his staff:
When I came here, that was one of the first things we talked about – Johnny – because he was consistent with the organization. It wasn’t ‘change’ or ‘turnover.’ And then, being able to work for the four or five months together, it’s not always compatible, but knowing that it was – it worked. At the end of the day, it’s got to work. That is what it’s about. That’s the biggest change in the coaching part of the game, is the size of staff now. If you even look at us now, it’s not like a three or four man thing. If you look at Muzz (Glen Murray) and Nelly (Nelson Emerson), Mike O’Connell, Kim (Dillabaugh). It’s way bigger than you think, even the last few days. [Reporter: What did you start off with in Chicago? What was your staff?] I was Radar. I carried the- [Reporter: The phone.] Yeah, that box. I did the travel, the hotels, the schedule. [Reporter: Tickets?] Tickets. Travel, meaning airplanes. That’s what I did. That was sort of what the first assistant coaches did, and then there was the guy who came in started doing a little bit of video, and that was a spin of Roger Neilson. You know, because then it became an isolated thing. It was very seldom a three or four-man thing. I remember when we got Vladislav Tretiak in Chicago. To me, that was like, ‘Oh, that’s awesome,’ not as the goalie guy, but just to have somebody like that. Quite honest, that’s how I got my first coaching job, was player-coach, right? You don’t see it as much now. I think a lot of guys who get out of the game are trying to get back in and they have a hard time. [Reporter: Was it harder for some coaches to delegate or kind of let go of that power a little bit?] Once you do it, do you see the value in it?] Yeah, I’m never afraid of that. Even when you talk about Davis and Johnny, Davis and Johnny have both been head coaches. The key is you shouldn’t feel- [Reporter: Threatened?] Yeah. I’m the other way. I’m ‘more is better’ in terms of the leadership part of it, as long as your staff understands their responsibilities, that’s more important than anything. That’s like a general having – a lot of good generals [inaudible] shows you good work. Hey, you know what? To me, it’s just strictly about playoffs. It’s all it’s about. I want guys who are going to be able to hold up under pressure, and the longer you do it, you can find it and you can see it. [Reporter: Did you know John very well before he came here?] No. [Reporter: I didn’t think so.] We just, because he primarily stayed in that eastern and in that Philly organization, he had only been on the west with three old organizations, for the most part.

On how he evaluates the last three days of practice:
It was good for our team. Sunday was, of the month, [one of our] days off, which was good for us. We finished the five-in-seven-and-a-half-days, and we had our fundraiser after the game on Sunday, so that gave us…all of Sunday, and then Monday was a real structure-system hard practice. It was nothing to do with record or anything like that. It was based on when we looked at, when we talked to the players about the five-in-the-seven-and-a-half what we were going to do on that Monday. That was good, and then yesterday we gave some of the older guys the option of being here or not being here, and they chose not to be here, or guys who were big minute guys because of the next part of the schedule coming up and the recovery part of it. So that was good. And today’s a good practice again, so get ready for the games now.

On whether the Stanley Cup Final seems like “the other day” or a long time ago:
No, it’s pretty fresh. I can relive it, just because I’m into the playoffs part of it more, I can relive that – not just last year’s playoff, but just about every [playoff] – I visually, in my mind, have a lot of playoff games that I can think about that seem like really not far. And it’s because we play the Rangers tomorrow, but I don’t look at it as the ‘playoff part’ of it. I look at it as we won [one of] the two regular season games last year. We won one-nothing in there and I think Tyler scored the only goal on the trip, and then the three-one game here, they scored the 200-foot, 185-foot [goal]. They won a faceoff in their zone. That’s what I remember most, and that was like October, and then we go- [Reporter: It was right after Jonathan got hurt. In New York.] It’s interesting, though, because both teams got written off early in the year, and both teams played in the Stanley Cup Finals.

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