Could Darryl Sutter become the next head coach of the Los Angeles Kings? Maybe. On a conference call with reporters Monday night, general manager Dean Lombardi wouldn’t answer any specific questions about Terry Murray’s successor, other than to suggest that he had a very “short list” of candidates.
John Stevens is handling the job on an interim basis, but Sutter’s name was the only one that made any sense, given Lombardi’s history (the two worked together in San Jose for years) and his tendency to hire people from within his inner circle.
Early on, before he landed in Calgary and coached the Flames to the 2004 Stanley Cup final, Sutter earned a unique distinction shared only by Al Arbour up to that point - he was behind the bench for a Sharks’ team that showed improvement in five consecutive years.
When asked specifically about what he wanted to see from a new coach, Lombardi invoked his San Jose experience and compared that rebuilding process to where Los Angeles sits now, a young team that started the year with high - some might argue overly high - expectations and thus far, hasn’t met them, for a variety of reasons.
“I’ve been through this before,” said Lombardi. “I saw it with the (Patrick) Marleaus and the (Brad) Stuarts and the (Evgeni) Nabokovs.”
Lombardi then went on the lay the blame for the Kings’ poor showing of late (four consecutive losses, tied for 11th in the Western Conference standings), on the players in the locker room, old and young. Defenceman Drew Doughty has had a particularly hard time of finding his game after missing training camp because of a contract dispute, but Lombardi was prepared to name other names as well, noting: “The (Jarrett) Stolls, the (Justin) Williamses, the (Dustin) Browns, all these guys have to look at themselves as much as the younger players (do).”
Well, Sutter would certainly make life interesting in Los Angeles. Overall, he has coached 860 NHL games, posting a 409-320-131 record over 12 seasons. For a Kings’ team interested in not only making the playoffs, but making some hay once they get there (apologies for the farming pun), a more pertinent stat may be Sutter’s playoff record - under .500 at 47-54.
Sutter guided the Flames to the 2004 Stanley Cup final where they lost in the seventh game to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then stepped away from the bench in July of 2006, after Calgary lost in the opening round of the first post-lockout playoff, to the Anaheim Ducks.
Sutter also made it the finals as an associate coach under Mike Keenan in 1992, where the Blackhawks lost to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sutter retained his GM portfolio in Calgary until just after Christmas last year, when the Flames replaced him with Jay Feaster. He has been on the outside ever since.
After years of painstaking rebuilding, the Kings imagine themselves as a team poised on the brink of playoff success.
Six consecutive years out of the playoffs produced a bundle of top draft choices, including Brayden Schenn, Doughty, Thomas Hickey, Jonathan Bernier, Lauri Tukonen and Dustin Brown. Schenn was traded this summer to Philadelphia in the blockbuster deal for Mike Richards, the signal in L.A. that the push was on.
Instead, they went backward, which is why Murray is on the outside looking in, and Lombardi is on the prowl for a new man behind the bench. Darryl Sutter? In the win-at-all costs NHL, stranger things have happened.
