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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. It is buried so many layers deep layers ofpride and disappointment and heartbreak we may never know whatthis run of the Los Angeles Kings has meant to Darryl Sutter. Has it rehabilitated his hockey good name, after being shuffled outof Calgary branded as yesterday s man, stuck in the old style,unable to adapt to the changing times? We say yes. He says . . itdoesn t matter. Is he happier now, back behind the bench, teaching the Kings kidswhat it takes to be professionals amid what the team s generalmanager, Dean Lombardi, once described as a Starbucks andsandals environment? We say yes. He says. . . the title is of noconsequence. Is he in this for the long haul, or is this enough for him, theultimate career capper, if the Kings should complete their sweep ofthe New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, and go 16-2, matching thebest Stanley Cup-winning record ever achieved since the playoffswent to four best-of-seven rounds? Two Alberta boys tried to pry open the shell during a half-hour ofprivate conversation Tuesday morning, and the glimpses into theheart of the 53-year-old third son of Louis and Grace and the farmin Viking were few, and faint. But what did shine through was the feeling he has developed for theplayers on the Kings, the pride he takes in what they have learnedand how they ve kept their minds from wandering while playing oneof the most disjointed, hiatus-laden playoff schedules ever foistedon a contender. On any of those points, it is impossible not to see Sutter sfingerprints, but you will never hear the words from him. He is,after all, a Sutter and they ve never made one of those with anounce of self-promoter in him. Yesterday s man is also giving a lesson in handling the task ofcoaching under the hot lights to New Jersey s Pete DeBoer, one ofthe brightest younger minds in the game, but so far no match forSutter, whose team has given the Devils but a few scattered chancesto bite into the series. It s such a fine line, Sutter said, in a quiet corner of theKings training facility. You think about how close this teamwas to not making the playoffs. That s the best thing about these guys: they bought in togetting better. Use your skill set. Do what we re trying to do asfive or six guys, but use it. There were times in the game (Monday) night when I didn t useKopy (Anze Kopitar), I didn t use Brownie (Dustin Brown), causeyou ve got to do it together. You can t do it as inpiduals. Ask him about vindication, after the sour ending to his time as GMin Calgary, and he deflects the question. It was the passing ofowners Doc Seaman and Harley Hotchkiss They were the team, he said and nothing was ever the same after that. He ll defend his record in Calgary, if pressed, but he s beenthere and done that, and the only thing he ll say about theseven-game Cup loss to Tampa Bay in 2004 is that team left it allon the ice. We didn t have a Brad Richards or a Vinny Lecavalier.In seven games we outscored them 14-13. You should win, but youcouldn t handle those guys at that level. Then you start losing guys (to injury) and now you re reallyropin and ridin. The difference this time is we re healthy.That s the advantage of not going long in series. Sutter s teams have always been about work ethic, and that s hardto sustain on tired legs. Not a problem when games are often threedays apart. Or four. When Sutter replaced Terry Murray at Christmas, as a favour toLombardi the two worked together in San Jose the dressingroom was transformed. So were a handful of inpiduals who needed tobe finessed, or frightened, into producing more of their potential. His intensity is an intensity that I haven t encountered yetfrom a coaching perspective, said Dustin Penner, the big wingerwho has worn the enigmatic tag most of his career but has beendynamic in the playoffs. He s always on. When you get to the rink, he s pacing. It sgame time for him, all the time. It bleeds out to the rest of theteam, the way he talks to us, the way he coaches the game, the wayhe teaches it, from practices to during the game to theintermissions. He s all about preparation, hard work and being a man outthere, said defenceman Drew Doughty. And once I finallyunderstood that, it was easy. It is a man s game, Sutter said Tuesday. That s what it sabout. It s the best league in the world. The reason you re stillplaying is because you re a man. It s not complicated. You know what? Coaches that are successful and coached a lot ofplayoff games they ve adjusted. There s a handful of guys,only a few, that have coached a lot of games in the playoffs.Playoffs is a whole different thing, and guys that have done ithave made the adjustments, over 30-40 years. There s parts of thegame that haven t changed, like compete, and be men butthere s other parts that have. If Lombardi had any doubts about Sutter s knowledge of the moderngame, or ability to motivate players, he wouldn t have called himthat day in early December. I think I was in the barn, Sutter said, at his formal newsconference. I wasn t shovelling s t, but I had that day, he said,smiling. I was probably warming up. It was cold. Knowing more than a little about the team he was about to take overwas no problem. When you re in Canada, you watch hockey every night, right? hesaid, at an afternoon news conference. It s dark at 4:30, andyou watch hockey. That s what you do. It s a good thing. The area where he made his biggest impact was radically changingthe level of the Kings preparedness at game time. They ve won every Game 1 and 2 and 3, too in each of theirseries, the first team in history to do that, so evidently, Sutterhas been the antidote to comfort. It s no problem for the veterans, but the kids have never dealtwith it. Kids like Drew, all the kids that come here, it s a bigdifference. They re awesome guys, they just need to be pushed totheir skill level, he said. It s not anybody s fault. Problem is they d never go to thebig rink. This isn t Los Angeles, it s the practice rink. Andthen it s five minutes back to the ocean. So game day, it s skatehere at 9:30, then show up at the big rink for four hours a night,41 times a year. Not even that, this year, because we played two inEurope. So 39 times a year, you have to try to create an identityon game day, it s hard to do. The Kings identity has been so strong in these playoffs, noopponent has even been able to put the tiniest dent in it. So well have they played, and so promising are some of their youngplayers, Sutter s favour to Lombardi looks as though it s goingto last a while. I haven t really looked at it, he said. I remember talkingto the players in Calgary, and I still feel the same way: If Idon t think I m helping them enough, then I m not doing it. Imean, I don t HAVE to do it. It s not like, What am I going todo tomorrow? I should be home chasing cows. Today s a day off. Could he see himself walking away after a Cup? No, he said. I don t think we ve played as good as we can.There s still lots to learn. The idea of a full season here, with training camp, clearlyintrigues him. It would be fun, just to see. Like Drew. He s about 75 per centof what he s going to be. Most kids his age, they re not playing25 minutes against everyone s best players. They re playing 12,13 even-strength minutes, he said. I d like to see what Drew s like with a whole summer oftraining, a whole summer knowing his contract. And then trainingcamp. I d love to just be able to watch him (grow). That s thebest part. It s like watching Jeremy (Roenick) when he was a kid.They re so good. No man puts four decades of his life into a game without dreamingof reaching the pinnacle, so take it for granted that he burns towin this Cup. I know what it was like when (younger brothers) Duane and Brentwon six (Cup rings with the Islanders) in four years. I know howthey felt, and they were just kids, he said. It was always whatdrove you. I played in the Calder Cup finals. Won the Turner Cup.This is the third (try for a) Stanley Cup. All those friggin conference finals, it was always the Oilers, the Oilers. You alwaysthought you were good enough for the next one, right? The next one will be in the building Wednesday night, polished andready to present, but you can bet on this: Darryl Sutter won tallow himself, or his team, to peek. Vancouver Sun ccole@vancouversun.com. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as T8 LED Tubes Manufacturer , China Waterproof Flexible LED Strips for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits LED Spot Light Bulbs.
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