Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter is a shrewd hockey mind, yet his often-hilariously-simple press conferences hinted at what’s apparently the truth: he’s a farmer at heart.
At least, that’s certainly the takeaway from a fantastic feature-length profile in the Los Angeles Times.
“Darryl stayed on the family farm, which is what our father always wanted us to do,” Brian Sutter said. “We weren’t raised to be hockey players, we were raised to be farmers.”
One Viking, Alberta local named Denton Quattek said “he’s just a normal farm boy” who would “rather talk about haying and cows than hockey.”
Then again, that farming background might just be a key to being a successful head coach, especially for an NHL team located in the busy city of Los Angeles.
“I do a lot of good hockey thinking out there by myself on the tractor,” Darryl Sutter said. “It clears everything in your head. It’s a peaceful thing.”
If you want a lasting image of what makes him tick, his combined day with the Stanley Cup and ALS Ice Bucket Challenge probably sums things up pretty well:
Darryl Sutter does the ALS ice buckett challenge in Viking Alberta @HockeyHallFame @NHL @lakingspr pic.twitter.com/5a5qmyLZ4D
— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) August 16, 2014
Humility, hockey and barns ... that covers it pretty succinctly right there.
However you view him, the Kings will be pleased if Sutter keeps churning out successful seasons (while the rest of us get to guffaw at all of his simple witticisms).
For more on Sutter staying true to his roots, read that great piece from the Los Angeles Times.