In-your-face style is working
The Kings are 7-1-5 since Darryl Sutter took over as coach
If there is a difference between Terry Murray and Darryl Sutter, both old school coaches, it’s personality.
Whether firing Murray and replacing him with Sutter is enough to turn around the under-achieving Los Angeles Kings has yet to be determined.
Murray, fired Dec. 12 after the Kings spent generously in the summer upgrading to what GM Dean Lombardi hoped would be to contender status, but then stumbled through the first 29 games, is more laid back and cerebral.
Sutter is the yeller and the coach who isn’t shy about getting in his players’ faces. Maybe that’s what you need in a sunbelt NHL franchise where hockey is on Page 5 of the sports section and there are lots of other things to occupy a player’s attention.
So far, it’s been encouraging. The Kings, who take on the Canucks tonight at Rogers Arena, are 7-1-5 under Sutter.
“They’re definitely polar opposites,” said former Canucks defenceman Willie Mitchell after the Kings practised on Monday.
“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.”
Mitchell said the most obvious difference is that Sutter — who stayed an extra day in Alberta on Monday to attend to some personal business — wears his passion on his sleeve.
“He’s just got huge passion for the game,” he said. “I think if his body would let him and he could, he’d strap on the skates and the shoulder pads and be out there. That’s kind of what our team needed, someone who’s has that drive for the game. He’s been terrific for that.
“When you see someone who’s your coach — your leader — approaching game days like that way, everyone else follows suit. This is not anything against Terry, but [Sutter] really stresses game days and how important they are. Everyone is accountable. There’s no gimmees. You don’t get ice time just because you’ve been on the power play. He’s challenged some of the younger players a little bit and hopefully that will make them grow.”
The Kings have received excellent goaltending from Jonathan Quick and their defence has been solid. What’s killed them this season — and got Murray fired — has been the lack of offence. That was supposed to have been addressed when Lombardi signed Simon Gagne as a free agent and worked a trade to get Philadelphia’s alleverything centre Mike Richards.
But there has been under-achievement pretty much across the board from those expected to put up points, and the Kings are dead last in goals in the NHL, with a paltry average of 2.15 per game. After No. 1 centre Anze Kopitar (42 points in 46 games), scoring drops off in a hurry.
The Kings have been trending upwards lately, though. They fell back to one goal in a 2-1 OT loss on Sunday in Edmonton, but had scored 13 goals in their previous three games.
“It’s no secret we’ve had trouble scoring goals, but I think in the past couple of weeks we’ve picked it up a little bit,” said right wing Justin Williams, who’s second on the Kings with eight goals and 30 points.
“I think we’ve kind of turned the corner. It’s hard to score goals. You’ve got to go to the dirty areas. You’re going to get hit, you’ve got to get to rebounds. Not all the goals are three-on-twos. I think it takes a load off the goaltenders as well, when they can know they can let in one or two goals and still win a game.”