Flames Breakfast

[CaptainYooh]

I was invited to attend an event this morning featuring a panel discussion with Craig Conroy, Robyn Regehr, Matt Stajan and Lanny McDonald moderated by Peter Maher. It was very nice and informal gathering. Guys were speaking freely, laughing and sharing stories from the past and their opinions of the present. I just wanted to share some of the things they said that did stand out for me:

Regehr about the three Sutters:
"They were all crazy, each one different crazy and each one crazier than the other. I've never seen coaches THAT competitive. But they were all really caring about players, without exception."

Conroy about Darryl:
2004, Game 1 of the Detroit series (this is well-known): Sutter walks into the locker room with a bunch of newspapers and says, well, we've lost this series. It's in the papers already. Game 2: Darryl walks in the locker room with a bunch of newspapers saying that he can get autographed sticks from Yzerman and other Detroit future hall-of-famers for the Flames players who are probably adoring them. Warrener says: "Well, I wouldn't mind an autographed Yzerman's jersey". Sutter barks "Oh, shut the f... up!", throws the newspapers at him and storms out of the room. But it was never personal with Darryl. He could rip your heart one day and you'd think that he hates you, but next morning, he'd come and talk to you normally and give praise for good work at practice.

Stajan about Darryl:
When he and his wife lost their newborn son, Sutter had already been gone from Calgary. Upon learning the news, he couldn't get a hold of Matt directly, so he phoned Matt's parents at 2am to console them and share his own family issues with them.

Regehr about Brent Sutter:
"Undoubtedly, the softest and nicest of the three. People didn't see that, because he was very reserved in public and had "that face". Story goes like this: Iginla bought a $35,000 German shepherd guard dog (yeah, a $35,000 dog). The dog turned out to be a wussy and a racist. He liked Kara, but was scared of Jarome and the kids and constantly ran away from them. So, one morning, after the team lost a few in a row, Brent interrupts a morning practice, calls everyone in and says sternly: "I just had a call from Calgary Police Service." Everyone thinks, oh, f..., someone did something stupid last night and got in trouble... Brent says: "Jerome, they've found your stupid dog running along Elbow Drive." Everyone laughs; they won that night. (Conroy says that he and Iggy spent half of the previous night looking for the damn dog all over Elbow Park).

Conroy about the role of head coach in NHL changing rapidly:
Coach used to be a father figure, a general in charge. When Ken King and Craig Button brought Darryl to Calgary, they came into the locker room with Darryl and introduced him to players saying how pleased they were blah-blah-blah. Darryl nodded, said: "Thanks for the introduction. Now get the f... out of the locker room. I need to talk to my team". And they left without saying a word.

When introducing Hartley to the team, Burke said to the players: "I have three rules: The Coach is right. The Coach is right. The Coach is right. If you don't like your coach and want to get traded, come see me. I will see what I can do to trade you. Otherwise, please don't come to me complaining about coaching and wanting to play more minutes and with someone else." Conroy, Regehr and Stajan all said that it was unthinkable for a player to ask to play with different linemates. If you wanted to play with better linemates, you had to earn it. Players (especially, young players) today feel a lot more entitled and demanding for coaches to accommodate their requests.
New generation of NHL coaches have to adjust and adapt to losing that power over players. This is not necessarily a good thing, but a reality.

On refereeing during playoffs:
McDonald: We used to know every ref and linesman in NHL by their first name. Helped a lot during playoffs. Refs were almost part of the "gang". You knew when they'd call it and you knew when they wouldn't. Now, half of the players don't even know who the refs are and don't care to know. It's becoming more of an "us vs them" thing.

Conroy: Young players today don't quite understand that playoffs are different. Johnny couldn't stop bitching about no-calls during his first playoff game. Ref had it from him at some point and gave the PP to the opponent on something trivial. Conroy ran down to see Johnny and told him to stop talking to refs. Johnny was "Craig, they've called this all season long!" He just couldn't understand that its different. But it IS very different during playoffs. Viewers and fans want the game flowing and emotions running high. The league and refs do not want to interrupt that flow.

Regehr: You must earn your respect with refs as a player. Those who complain at every opportunity, insult refs, try to humiliate them, get noticed and remembered. And, the other way around, those who take it in stride, eventually get much more respect from the refs and get calls when warranted more consistently.

Conroy: On taking a faceoff against Yzerman and linesman thanking Stevie for the autographed stick he gave him before the game; then throwing the puck right into Stevie's stick.

McDonald on BoA:
"Players today all know each other, they talk to opposing players during practices and pre-game warm-ups. During BoA's, we did not talk to Edmonton players. We would either stare them down or walk right past them in the hallways without saying a word. It was a war. You do not talk niceties to your enemy before the battle!"

Stajan about Social Media
Social media is affecting team dynamics negatively. Players used to sit at the back of the bus or plane talking about the game (won or lost), laughing, sharing stories etc. Lately, everyone sits in their seat and stares at their phones. Nobody talks.

On Peter Maher:
Falling of his chair and continuing to call the game while lying under his desk and not actually seeing anything that's going on on the ice...

There was a lot more said, but this is what stood out for me. And, yes, it did feel a bit nostalgic for the good old days, but I liked it anyway, especially, because I agree with most of it.

[AC]

Holy #### the racist dog story is great.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by AC

Holy #### the racist dog story is great.

Conroy recalled asking Iggy how the dog looked like when they went to look for him at night and Iggy saying, "I don't f...n' know, like a big f...n' dog!"

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by AC

Holy #### the racist dog story is great.

I laughed too. On Curb Your Enthusiasm, there was an episode this season, just a couple of weeks ago, where Larry ran in to a German shepherd that was growling at him and immediately stopped when he raised his arm in a Heil manner

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

I laughed too. On Curb Your Enthusiasm, there was an episode this season, just a couple of weeks ago, where Larry ran in to a German shepherd that was growling at him and immediately stopped when he raised his arm in a Heil manner

First thing that came into my mind as well

[CaptainYooh]

They had another episode, in an earlier season, about Wanda Sykes accusing Larry of purposely adopting a racist dog.

[Rando]

Oh wow, excellent summary. Thanks CaptainYooh. The racist dog story is hilarious and Warrener seems to be a lifetime antagonist

[UKflames]

Players (especially, young players) today feel a lot more entitled and demanding for coaches to accommodate their requests.
New generation of NHL coaches have to adjust and adapt to losing that power over players. This is not necessarily a good thing, but a reality.

This doesn't surprise me at all. I listened to an interview with Eddie Jones, England rugby coach, and he said something similar. Younger players have such a short attention span, they have had to cut down classroom/video coaching to no more than three items and each has to be no longer than 15 minutes in length, otherwise they stop paying attention. They think they know everything and it takes a while to get them to want to keep learning and playing the way you want them too.

[drewtastic]

That stuff Lanny said about not engaging with the enemy is bang-on.

Notice the difference even in my amateur athletic career-younger generations are way too friendly before (especially) important games for this old coot’s liking!

[CaptainYooh]

OK, one more story:
Regehr was playing Games 6 and 7 of the Tampa series with high-ankle sprain. Question was asked, how he did it, that is a terribly painful injury. The team roster was already depleted severely and he did not want to quit . So he asked the doctors to freeze his leg from the knee down with several injections. He said the biggest challenge for him was to push his frozen foot into a skate boot and the biggest fear was to break a foot on ice without feeling anything. Then he mentioned soccer players lying on the grass, squirming from seemingly insufferable pain and their doctors coming out, spraying something on their feet from a little bottle and, suddenly, the players are up and running again like nothing ever happened. NHL'ers call that bottle "magic spray". Regehr joked about potentially winning the Cup, if the Flames doctors had that magic spray handy then.

[jlh2640]

Wow thanks for sharing