At a press conference this afternoon, my favorite hockey team, the Calgary Flames, are expected to announce that Brent Sutter will become the new head coach of the team, working under his brother Darryl, the Flames GM. The Calgary Herald's report today seemed to indicate that the New Jersey Devils' players had two things to say about Brent Sutter: 1) He will be as tough and hard-nosed a coach as his brother, Darryl and 2) None of the players hold any grudges about him leaving New Jersey with one year left on his contract to be closer to family and then turning around just a few weeks later and agreeing to coach the Flames.
The NJ Devils response to losing an excellent coach and being so complimentary and understanding when he begins to coach a new team is such a stark contrast to the Detroit Red Wings who were so ungracious and seemingly "sore losers" when Sidney Crosby did not get in line fast enough for their liking to shake hands with them... so they could get off the ice in front of their hometown fans who were stunned that the Red Wings had lost game #7.
The Red Wings' players criticisms of Crosby were also in contrast to their coach, Mike Babcock, who commented to Crosby as they went through the line "Congratulations! You played well and showed great leadership of your team" (or something close to that is what I overhead with the good ole CBC mics). Wonderfully, Hockey Canada is expected to name Babcock as the head coach for the 2010 Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey team. Good choice, Steve Yzerman... admittedly, you didn't have to look to far :-)
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