Flames’ Sutter was focused on bigger things than retaliating against the Oilers

PENTICTON, BC — Darryl Sutter eschews the comfy curtained-off Calgary Flames team viewing area with tables, chairs and snacks, and instead leans against the railing high up in a corner of the South Okanagan Entertainment Centre.

One foot on the bottom rail, arms crossed on the top rail, he watches the rookies of the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers like a guy at a cattle auction. He quietly cheers for the kids who come off a farm or from a flyover town like Viking or Shaunavon, a dwindling breed in these tournaments as the price of petty hockey and the rise of expensive academies slowly restrict families like Lou and Grace Sutter’s in the NHL -Participation.

“These are the children you are looking for,” he smiles. “The small town kids and the boys who didn’t get drafted.”

For a man who is Alberta through and through, coaching in last spring’s Battle of Alberta was special — even if it didn’t go the way of the Calgary Flames. But Sutter was never an “us and them” type when it came to the Flames and Oilers, and he loved it when people around town stopped him to chat about the first playoff fight in 31 years.

“There was a time when people talked about one (team) but not the other, and there was a time when they didn’t talk about it either. We were there,” he says, raising an eyebrow and shoving the guy away from Edmonton. “Just getting the two of us back in and then being able to play each other was so unique and special and it doesn’t happen very often. Everyone says, ‘Well, wait until next year’, but you might not play against everyone else for another long time. Our division is getting stronger and stronger.”

So while we’re on the subject, what went wrong for the Flames, Darryl, last spring when they were brought down by the Oilers in five games?

“We weren’t a good match,” he says matter-of-factly. “When Chris Tanev was injured, I think our young couple Noah (Hanifin) and Rasmus (Andersson) had to put up with a lot. Shilly (Oliver Kylington) and Z (Nikita Zadorov) both played with a severed shoulder and broken ribs, Tanny was out…You depend on the short shots, and that’s what happens in the playoffs the further you go.

“The top of your lineup has to be really healthy – that’s how good teams win,” he adds. “It wasn’t ‘What went wrong?’ anyway. I mean, this is playoff hockey.”

He also watched Leon Draisaitl amass 15 points over five games while limping around with a high ankle sprain.

“These kids got beat up too,” he said of the Oilers. “But the difference is their top end was better than ours. Serious.”

Much of Sutter’s “upper class” left town this summer as Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk moved on. One gets the feeling that Sutter didn’t spend much time crying to his pillow over the exits.

“I was neither surprised nor disappointed,” he said. “Guys have career years, they are unrestricted players and they leave. It’s not like we broke up the band. All the guys that came on had career years (last year).”

The beauty of Flames General Manager Brad Treliving’s work is that he basically saved the Battle of Alberta. With Gaudreau leaving and Tkachuk declaring he wouldn’t sign, a Flames roster that just couldn’t handle Edmonton last spring could have been even further depleted.

But the consensus among the hockey crowd gathered here in Penticton is that Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar make the Flames a more formidable playoff opponent, though Calgary may no longer be a 111-point regular-season team.

There’s only one problem, of course, in bringing this theory up with the Flames head coach.

“You have to make it,” Sutter said. “All the experts pick these guys or these guys…. You know, you have to make the playoffs.”

come on darryl

We all know that the Oilers’ path to success will be through Calgary. And that the Flames won’t get anywhere unless they figure out how to deal with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

“Completely irrelevant,” Sutter spits out.

Where from?

“Because I know how to win and it’s not about beating a team. Edmonton beat Calgary last year, but did it help them win the Stanley Cup? You have to get through the best team in your conference at the end of the day. That’s how you win a championship.”

“To win championships you need goalkeepers, top four defenders – and one of those has to be a stud. And then you have to be great in the middle. The last thing is to win,” he adds. “If you say we had a really good season last year, yes we did. We’ve regained some credibility in terms of how to play to be successful.

“But like you win championships, you have to make the playoffs over and over again.”

And come through Edmonton – or vice versa – over and over again.

We can only hope that last spring was the start of something, not just a one-off event.