Coaches Around the NHL Share Barry Trotz’s “Old School” Tendencies Part 2

Los Angeles Kings – Darryl Sutter

Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Sutter is often championed as one of the most forward-thinking coaches of the modern era and with two Stanley Cup wins in the last three years, it’s hard to argue against him. Still, even Sutter isn’t immune from sensible criticism about some of his old-school tendencies.

Nick Chapin writes for Jewels from the Crown under the name nickc79 and his twitter feed is pretty awesome, I’d highly recommend following him. Here are his thoughts on Sutter:

"As far as Sutter goes, he has a slight reliance on toughness and grit that grates on me sometimes. He over-values lumbering physical defensemen like Robyn Regehr and his ilk, which can be frustrating. If you watch the Road to the Stadium Series premiere, all he talks about is how the Kings need to be heavier and more physical and how it’s their identity. It’s also been rare that he’s been willing to deploy real skill on the 4th line, which means guys like Kyle Clifford or Jordan Nolan or Andy Andreoff or Colin Fraser have had probably-longer runs than they should’ve had with the team. With that said, these are fairly minor issues and he actually seems to grasp MOST modern ideas, so I try and forgive him for his faults."

Here’s the scoop, kids: all coaches love stay-at-home type defensemen and “gritty” 4th liners. It’s like a handshake agreement they all have before the start of each season to annoy bloggers. While Chapin is pleased with Sutter overall, it seems Sutter may also have an obnoxious tendency to rely too much on Jonathan Quick.

"The only thing about him that really bothers me is his over-reliance on Jonathan Quick, who, frankly, is probably not any better than his backups, and hasn’t been besides his super season in 2011/12. The point isn’t that Martin Jones and Jonathan Bernier are definitely better, but Sutter rides Quick into the ground and we haven’t really been able to see what other guys can accomplish – unless Quick gets injured."