Darryl Sutter last coached in the NHL in 2023, and he turned 68 this summer, but
asserted
he → coach → 2023
retirement doesn’t seem close.
He spent time this week promoting his new book, “The Code of the West: Lessons from the Ranch and the Rink,” written with Justin Bourne.
asserted
He → seem → Bourne
But when a morning interview concluded, the two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach wasn’t headed for a round of golf or a game of pickleball.
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coach → conclude → pickleball
Sutter was hopping into a combine to wrap up the harvest on the 3,300-acre ranch in Viking, Alta., where one of hockey’s most famous families laid the roots of an incredible NHL legacy.
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one → hop → legacy
If the game has been taking Sutter away from the farm since he was a teenager, the farm never left his system.
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farm → take → system
“We still have about 800 acres left to harvest, so I’ll be out in the fields,” Sutter said.
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Sutter → have → fields
The play between Sutter’s two callings — the lure of the world’s best hockey league and the gravitational pull back to the family acreage he now tends with his wife, Wanda, and son, Chris — is at the root of Sutter’s new memoir.
asserted
he → tend → memoir
It’s a hockey book, sure, because Sutter’s life has been consumed by the game.
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life → ’ → game
But thanks to the breadth of Sutter’s experiences — as player, coach, father, grandfather and farmer — he hopes it’s not out of place on a shelf of self-improvement hardcovers.
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it → hop → hardcovers
“The Western way of life, the values that come with it.
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that → come → it
People are genuinely interested in that right now, given everything going on in the world,” Sutter said.
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Sutter → give → world
“They want to know how to stay grounded, how to live by something real.
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They → want → something
That’s why this wasn’t just a hockey memoir for me.
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this → ’ → me
It’s something that can actually help people.”
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that → ’ → people
If “The Code of the West” is something of a cowboy Ten Commandments, certainly some of the credit must go to the family patriarch, the late Louis Sutter.
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some → go → patriarch
Along with his wife, Grace, the family raised seven sons, all of whom worked on the family farm, six of whom played in the NHL.
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six → raise → NHL
The Sutters were a family that lived by rules, mostly unspoken.
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that → live → rules
Although Louis was a man of few words, he was also a lifelong fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs who made one thing clear when a scout for the Montreal Canadiens showed interest in his sons.
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scout → make → sons
“No way none of my boys are wearing a Canadiens jersey,” Louis told the scout, according to family lore.
uncertain
Louis → wear → lore
The Sutter brothers played a combined 4,994 NHL games.
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brothers → play → games
Not one played a game for Montreal.
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one → play → Montreal
Only one, Rich, played for the Maple Leafs.
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one → play → Leafs
Hockey can be a conformist’s game, but the Sutter boys didn’t follow blindly in their dad’s blue-and-white loyalty.
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boys → follow → loyalty
Darryl writes that he was a childhood fan of the Blackhawks, the only franchise he ever played for.
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he → write → Blackhawks
After starring for Red Deer in the Alberta junior league he signed a letter of intent to play U.S. college hockey at Michigan Tech.
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he → star → Tech
“I wanted to be an archeologist growing up,” he said.
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he → want → ?
And though he abandoned that plan to play for Lethbridge in the WHL, he was never a surefire NHLer.
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he → abandon → WHL
Miffed that Chicago selected him in the 11th round of the 1978 draft, Sutter spent a season playing in Japan before making the ritual self-sacrifice of proving himself to the NHL overlords.
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Sutter → miff → overlords
If his skills were considerable — he scored 40 goals in his first full NHL season — no one questioned his guts.
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one → score → guts
After Sutter’s face was shattered by a slapshot in 1984, he played the remainder of an NHL season without the sight in one eye.
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he → shatter → eye
“There’s no way I should’ve been back in NHL games that soon,” he writes.
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he → ’ → games
“Nobody made me play, either; I just played because I was a player, not a watcher.”
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I → make → ?
It’s not by coincidence that the first principle of “The Code of the West” is: “Live each day with courage.”
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principle → ’ → courage
Injuries turned Sutter to coaching too soon — he’s the only Sutter brother who failed to reach the 500-game mark as an NHLer — and maybe the road to a Stanley Cup at times seemed too long.
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road → turn → times
He was associate coach of a Blackhawks team that lost in the 1992 Cup final, and head coach of a Calgary team that lost the final in seven games in 2004.
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that → lose → 2004
The book highlights a little-known turning point that starred an unlikely hero: Tim Leiweke.
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that → highlight → hero
After Sutter took the helm of the floundering L.A. Kings in December 2011, the team was still in danger of missing the playoffs come the trade deadline.
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team → take → deadline
Leiweke was running the Kings’ parent company at the time, not long before he would arrive in Toronto as CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
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he → run → Sports
Sutter writes that Leiweke came into the Kings dressing room and chastised the players about the money the company would lose if the team didn’t make the post-season.
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team → write → season
The coach remembers Leiweke’s speech angering players, yet somehow galvanizing the group.
asserted
speech → remember → group
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
