Darryl Sutter bag skates Flames in first practice as head coach
Darryl Sutter, who was hired as the Calgary Flames head coach five days ago, made his hard nosed style well known immediately, as he l bag skated the team for a chunk of Tuesday's practice, his first with the club.
General manager Brad Treliving chose to bring in Sutter after relieving Geoff Ward of his duties as the team's head coach roughly an hour after the Flames defeated the Ottawa Senators 7-3 last Thursday. At the time of the firing, they were 11-11-2. They have had to play the last two games without Sutter who was forced to quarantine for a short time after arriving in Calgary, but appears ready to go now. While it remains to be seen whether or not he can turn the Flames around, players seem happy with their new coach early on.
"Definitely the best practice we've had in a while," defenceman Chris Tanev said when asked about how practice went today with his new bench boss. Forward Matthew Tkachuk also sang Sutter's praises.
"All business, no messing around," Tkachuk said.
The Flames do not play until Thursday, where they will take on the Montreal Canadiens. Ironically enough, they are trailing those Habs by four points for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division, proving just how important Thursday's game will be.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Taylor Hall | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Brayden Point | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Bryan Rust | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Pavel Zacha | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Erik Karlsson | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Elias Lindholm | - | 3 | 3 | |
| David Pastrnak | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Tim Stutzle | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Adam Gaudette | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Dylan Holloway | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Brad Marchand | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Aleksander Barkov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Bennett | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex DeBrincat | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 23 | 18 | 5 | - | 36 | |
Hurricanes | 22 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 33 | |
Wild | 22 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 32 | |
Devils | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 32 | |
Capitals | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 31 | |
Golden Knights | 23 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 31 | |
Maple Leafs | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Flames | 23 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 28 | |
Panthers | 23 | 13 | 9 | 1 | 27 | |
Kings | 23 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 27 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||