Kings Hire New Coach: Darryl Sutter

What a rough and tumble year this has been for my Kings. They came out of the gate as potential division favorites and possible Stanley Cup contenders only to stumble as scoring became nonexistent. Soon, they did the only thing they could do. They fired their coach. Now, it has been announced that the official replacement has been chosen and it is Darryl Sutter.

Sutter is a part of a hockey family that saw 6 brothers skate in the NHL. He is known as a tough coach with a propensity to scream and expect the most from his players. The Kings will not be getting the patient teacher they had in Murray, but will instead get a coach who will demand excellence at all times. It appears the Kings front office thinks a little bit of butt kicking is in order, and I couldn't agree more. They are too good to be playing this bad.

Here is a announcement I came across from their minor league affiliate Manchester Monarchs.

The 53-year-old Sutter has a career head coaching record of 409-320-131 in 860 regular season games. He’s tied for 27th among all-time NHL head coaches in games (seventh among active coaches) and is tied for 24th all-time among NHL head coaches in wins (seventh among active coaches). Sutter’s teams have eclipsed the 40-win mark four times, 100 points twice and his clubs have finished in first place three times. He is also only one of nine head coaches in NHL history to lead three different teams to 100 wins. Only Scotty Bowman and Ron Wilson have coached four different teams to 100 wins.

Sutter’s teams have qualified for the postseason 10 of his 11 seasons. He led Calgary to Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals and Chicago to the 1995 Western Conference Finals. Overall he has a 47-54 record in 101 career postseason games. He’s tied for 19th all-time among NHL head coaches in playoff games (fifth among active coaches) and is tied for 24th all-time among NHL head coaches in playoff wins (tied for sixth among active coaches).