Is Sutter Trying to Get Fired?

I'm really beginning to wonder if Darryl Sutter even wants his job as Flames GM anymore. This isn't a passing thought either. He's been trying to answer to his own ideals, but seems to end up bowing down to the fans' voice, which the conflict between the two is hardly constructive in a town begging to be entertained. Between the style of play, the dealing with the players and now the subsequent trades, I'm not sure if he's lost his nut or what here.

Around the time that Darryl hired his brother Brent to be the head coach of the team, there was somewhat of an ideal laid out that between the two brothers, they would re-institute the defensive play system, which led them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004, despite the city's cries for more offense and a more exciting game to watch.

First things first: it's ridiculous to me to cry about a boring game when my favourite team is winning and comes one goal or one "missed call" away from winning the big prize at the end of the long & winding tunnel. Sadly, I blame this on the fans not wanting to learn the game and rather just desire to be entertained like they are when they watch their terrible reality TV shows and listen to their terrible pop music. There is a general lack of appreciation for the game of hockey by the general masses, but this is definitely not unique to Calgary. As I've learned on Twitter over the past calendar year, every team has fans that don't appreciate the game and its hard to deal with sometimes, you know?

So, saying that, Sutter ends up bowing down to the masses that buy the tickets and changes up the game, with good regular season results, but nowhere near the height of their Cup run. It's not hard to realize why, in my opinion. Sutter can't judge a player without thinking about the defensive style of play that he's come to know and cherish and trying to build a offensive team with some more defensively sound players isn't all that easy. I honestly believe he knew that going into this change of heart, which is why he stepped away from the bench and went up to the press box as full-time General Manager, because he didn't know how to coach the system that would entertain the Saddledome. Poor Jim Playfair was the guy who got held accountable for the switch in styles, as management cranked the dial in the opposite direction to what won them so many games.

Sure, Jarome Iginla enjoyed some pretty good scoring regular seasons in the change of style, but that couldn't be translated into the same game in the playoffs where teams buckled down and got the job done. Dion Phaneuf also enjoyed the offensive system, getting the okay to bomb pucks at the net, because that was what he was good at, next to knocking opposing players into next week.

So, when the fans and media called for Playfair's head, Sutter decided to take the offensive knob and put it back a couple notches with the hiring of Mike Keenan. A little bit more defense, but the Flames will still try to put some pucks in the net. Sutter kept bringing in players that would suit the system, but he wasn't able to stray too far from his own ideals and when he did, a la Kristian Huselius, there was a lot of confusion as to what his role was with the team. When everyone started to get confused, it really didn't look good on Darryl, Keenan or anyone on the team. Needless to say, when Huselius put points up on the board on a good night, everyone would forget why they were confused until he was a minus-3 a few nights later.

Then comes the Olli Jokinen saga. Of course, this had to be the make-or-break card that Darryl had to play to try and turn things around. Now, in all fairness, I truly believe that the fans of the Flames are somewhat scared of Darryl Sutter or just have him on too high of a pedestal, because of 2004's run. Darryl really wanted Jokinen for years and when Jokinen was made available to him from Phoenix, of course he was going to jump at the chance to acquire him. This was going to be it... the Flames are on their way to the promising land.

Please enter your foghorn sound here.

From what I read around the Jokinen deal, the Flames fans were excited to see a new number one centre for Iginla arrive and everything was okay, because Darryl really wanted him and "if he wanted him, so did we." Jokinen ended up scoring some goals and putting up some points, but the Flames didn't win many games, ending up losing the division title to the Canucks and then flopping out of the first round of the playoffs again. It looked so bad, that Keenan lost the job in Calgary and there was a call for Darryl to come down from the press box and coach again.

"Wait, what?" I know I heard on several occasions that some Flames fans wanted Darryl to come back down and coach again, meaning that the Flames would go back to playing boring old Sutter hockey. That blew me away to say the least. It's amazing what people forget when they just want their team to win. The 1-0 wins, the lack of goals, shots and chances. Sure the defense is fine and Kiprusoff is putting up some great numbers, but it's boring. How long would it have been before that cry emerged again?

Out of the Eastern Conference there was a little bit of scuttlebutt that brother Brent was getting homesick and that he would prefer to go home to the ranch and work his WHL team, the Red Deer Rebels. "But wait, if Brent is getting homesick, why doesn't he just come and coach the Flames? Then we'd have two Sutters and then we can't lose!" The mood lightens a bit when Brent and the Devils come to terms with an amicable split and then the coaching decision in Calgary becomes one of the most obvious rumours and worst-kept secrets in the past few years.

Sadly, the tale hasn't gotten any better. A rocking start again, a fresh defensive system, more accountability to the players in post-game interviews and it just went sour. All of this effort to rebuild the old system is seemingly going to waste. The team currently has lost 10 of their last 11 games, Olli Jokinen's numbers are not those of a number one centre with a cap hit over $5 million and no one seems particularly happy with being on the team full-stop. It couldn't be a coincidence that the private locker room blowout with Dion Phaneuf had much to do with the start of the slide down the Northwest Division standings, could it? Of course, it still remains speculative that it happened, but the Sutter-denial system usually means its Opposite Day in Calgary.

Now, after all these seasons, coaches, players, systems and nothing to show for it... how would you feel if your team wasn't performing like the team that they should be on paper? I'd be pretty pissed off too and likely pretty fed up. It's crazy to think of any manager nowadays putting dynamite in the kitty's ears and blowing the whole kit & kaboodle up (in the same vein as Itchy & Scratchy), but it has begun.

I can just picture Darryl Sutter on the side of the road looking holding a sign that reads, "Kovalchuk or Bust!" Rumours are abound about Sutter landing the top prize at the trade deadline and it doesn't seem to be out of the question that he is going for the Thrashers sniper. It also seems likely, which is the general idea of this blog post, that he is trying to bust his way out of the job.

Look at these two deals he's made. He's shipped Dion, which is a good thing for the room, and brought in four players from Toronto. Sure, you can bring in two of the four top scorers on a team... but is that really what you want from a team that is last in the Eastern Conference? Next, he finally gets around to dealing Olli Jokinen away. Fantastic! He was a big lump on the ice that wasn't helping anyone. But in return, Sutter managed to get a selfish player in Ales Kotalik and another underachiever in Christopher Higgins.

Now, there is a good chance that Sutter has been chatting with Don Waddell in Atlanta on what the best way to go about landing Ilya Kovalchuk would be, but if flipping Kotalik in this deal is what's going to do it, then the Thrashers organization better have a second mental assessment on Waddell to see if they want him going working for the team going forward.

I truly think that Sutter is making these deals in spite of everything that he knows to be true about winning in the NHL. He's gotta be fed up with the team, the city, the fans and the media, which has made his life a living hell since he raised the bar of expectations after his Cup Finals appearance six years ago. Even if he can land Kovalchuk, that will be his last straw... I have to believe that. How much longer can he go?

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