[Dion]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

You know, I get that people are upset at GG, and that's fine he deserves some of the ire that's sent his way.

But honestly people that think that coaches have to stand up at the start of the game and make grand motivational speeches to get players fired up to go out on the ice are following a fictional narrative.

Remember Darryl Sutter and how he motivated the Flames?

The below is what's missing in the dressing room

Into the visitors’ dressing room, he stomps. Conversation stops.

Clutched in the boss’s hand is a copy of the local newspaper.

What is Darryl Sutter up to? Nobody has a clue — which, of course, is how the old cowboy wants it.

Sutter snaps open the paper, showing his players the headline, which, in a screamingly large type size, forecasts a series breeze for the Detroit Red Wings.

“(Those letters were) huge — 4-0. SWEEP,” says Craig Conroy. “He’s like, ‘We’re already swept, guys. I guess we should just go home.’ He made a little joke. But he was serious.”

Point made, Sutter places the offending broadsheet on a shelf.

“No one threw the paper away,” says Conroy. “It just sat there.”

Hours later, the Calgary Flames return to the dressing room, 2-1 victors at Joe Louis Arena. Sutter marches back in, snatches the newspaper.

“He says, ‘You know how much this is worth?’ and he threw it in the garbage,” says Conroy. “He said, ‘They don’t just get to win four in a row. We can beat these guys.’ We were like, ‘You know what? He’s right.’ The more we won, the more we believed.”

Which was exactly how Sutter ran the Flames — his Flames.

Commodore recalls Sutter targeting Conroy one night before a contest, needling him relentlessly, until . . . .

“Craig exploded and started screaming at Darryl,” he says. “Connie was riled — I thought his head was going to explode. Then Darryl started clapping and said, ‘Here we go.’ And out of the dressing room (we went).

“I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ But we won the game.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...198/story.html