We have a reunion of sorts in Los Angeles tonight, as the Calgary Flames (27-22-9) visit former coach and GM Darryl Sutter’s Los Angeles Kings (27-20-11) at 8 pm MT. Let’s put aside what little sentiment we may have for our former fearless leader, and take a look at the matchup.
The teams have split the games so far this year, which is appropriate given their respective places in the standings at the moment: they have the exact same number of wins and losses, though the Kings have managed to put a couple more OTLs on the board, putting them two points ahead in the standings in the Western Conference. The battle behind the bench pits coaches with two similar styles as well as surnames; both Sutters preach defence first and second, and offense if you can get around to it. The goal tally bears witness to that: the Kings, like the Flames, struggle on the offensive end: they’re dead last in the league in goals per game.
As expected for a low scoring team, the Kings’ goaltending has held them in the race. Johnathan Quick has had a dominant year in his third season as the Kings’ starting goaltender: he’s third in the league in save percentage, and is a big part of where they are right now. The Kings are a modest 12-6-7 under Darryl Sutter’s leadership. I say modest because that’s actually more losses than wins, but picking up OT and SO losses do advance them up the standings. I found Sutter’s hiring to be a curious one at the time- previous coach Terry Murray had also been a coach with a defensive reputation, and the popular opinion was that they needed to score better. The differences between Sutter and Murray are highlighted, however, by this quote from defenseman Willie Mitchell back in January:
"“They’re definitely polar opposites. Terry was a really relaxed guy, maybe not as vocal, where Darryl will tell you that you’ve got to make that play and when he tells you, he’s right. But then he’ll come down the bench and tell you when you do something good, too. He’s a good motivator.”"
So perhaps there was a method to the madness of hiring the old Flames’ bench boss/GM, despite supposedly similar tactics to the previous coach.
The Flames are coming off a heartbreaking loss in overtime to the Dallas Stars, on a beauty of a goal from Mike Ribiero. Calgary’s list of walking wounded is quite a bit longer than LA’s- they have five forwards and defenseman Derek Smith injured right now, with none of them expected to play tonight. As we should expect this to be a low scoring contest between two defensively-oriented teams, the Flames will need Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen to continue their hot play.
Go Flames Go!