Sutter's a winning coach, a lifelong hockey guy. So what's not to like?
He is difficult with the media, he almost never gives you what you want to hear. I remember back when he was coach the Flames, what, 15 years ago or something? And they lost a close playoff game and someone asked Sutter what needed to change and he said "I thought we played great." And that's not enough for some fans. In some ways it's a really deep answer, but it comes off as flippant or even stupid maybe. But what's he supposed to do, reveal some master plan for the next game in a media scrum?
Same with the Pelletier situation, he intentionally played it down in the media because it was fun to do so.
Why was Sutter fired after winning two cups with LA? Because the players couldn't do what he wanted, which was to physically destroy every team every night. Dustin Brown was pretty candid about the good and the bad with Sutter - the good, communication is real direct. The bad - you just can't be expected to play titanium-man hockey for 80 games, it's insane. So the players kinda tuned him out.
Here, this year, we've seen all kinds of decisions that have been .... peculiar? With the game on the line, and needing a goal.... out goes Lucic, Lewis, and Rooney for an offensive zone draw... like, it's just been weird here and there. Is it a message to players? Is it a fanatical devotion to rolling 4 lines at all times? We don't know, and that's difficult as a fan.
His reliance on a goaltender is well established, and it hurt the Flames last year, and probably this year too. Vladar probably should have had a start against the Oilers in the playoffs, Marky was looking shaky. And this year, same thing, just roll Markstrom back out no matter what, like there's just no way Vladar is getting 3 starts in a row, there's nothing Vladar could do to earn that, and that seems foolish to some of us.
The team has looked out of sync this year, and no wonder, but I think a lot of us were hoping that an experienced coach would be able to get things looking right a lot faster. And yeah, it's a new top line, and yeah, the defense is stripped of a really important piece with Kylington gone. But things have looked like a kindergarten fire drill pretty often and as a fan you wonder why, and of course, Sutter's explanations to the media are monosyllabic, so it's hard to think "Oh, this is going fine." Hard to trust "the process" whatever it is.
The team doesn't have elite scoring talent, so they have to out work opponents. Sometimes they manage it, sometimes they don't.
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