Tyler Toffoli reveals Darryl Sutter's most infamous chirp.
Tyler Toffoli reveals how the former head coach of the Calgary Flames chirped his own players.
Although long time National Hockey League head coach Darryl Sutter has often been the target of criticism due to his hard-nosed coaching style, there is no denying the results he has produced. Sutter is a former Stanley Cup champion and has clearly shown an ability to motivate players, but sometimes that can rub the players the wrong way.
One player who has seemingly always flourished under Sutter's leadership is Calgary Flames forward Tyler Toffoli who not only won a Stanley Cup with Sutter and the Los Angeles Kings, but also performed well for the head coach during their time together with the aforementioned Flames.
Toffoli was recently a guest on the Spittin Chiclets podcast and it was during that appearance that he was asked about Sutter's strategy when it comes to motivating players behind the bench. Toffoli would go on to reveal that one of Sutter's most infamous chirps, directed at his own players, was regarding the team's practice facility, or lack thereof.
"So in Calgary we don't have a practice rink right so we would have to go to Winsport where Hockey Canada has all their stuff, " revealed Toffoli. "It was like 20-30 minutes outside the city... but if we would have a bad game or a bad first period... during the game he would be walking back and forth mumbling 'I guess we have to go to Winsport tomorrow.'"
As if that wasn't hilarious enough, it doesn't sound like it would take a great deal to make Sutter unhappy enough to threaten his players with a trip outside of the city the next morning.
"It's literally first period, it's 0-0, we have 15 shots and they have 3 and he's just chirping the guys on the bench 'I guess we gotta go to Winsport tomorrow.'"
It sounds like no one was spared from this particular chirp either, with Toffoli describing how Sutter would even mess with goaltender Jacob Markstrom in this same manner.
"It would be 0-0 and he would tell [Dan Vladar] to get ready to go in and it's 0-0 and he's like 'Marky is not ready to play'" said Toffoli with a laugh. "There's a reason it is 0-0 he has 10 saves, we haven't touched the puck this whole period!"
Toffoli of course recognized that his coach was merely trying to motivate the players behind the bench, and given his retelling of the story it seems he didn't take the chirping from Sutter too seriously.
