Brian Sutter on life, hockey and life

From The Daily News of Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007. . . .

Spend a few minutes chatting with Brian Sutter, the head coach of the WHL’s
Red Deer Rebels, and you start to feel like you’re on a cattle drive.
There’s a relaxed, folksy feeling to the conversation and yet, simmering
just below the surface, is that famous Sutter intensity. And when it’s all
over there is this feeling of having climbed on and off Dr. Phil’s couch.
“I’ve got two things I love in life besides my family,” Sutter, who turned
51 on Oct. 7, said after a Monday practice at Interior Savings Centre. “One
is raising cattle and farming and the other is the game of hockey. And
that’s all it is is a game.
“I don’t get caught up in how old we are or how veteran we are or what
people say about us. I want us to be better tomorrow than we were today and
that’s the whole key. I know where we want to be at the end of the road.
“If people start just looking at tomorrow instead of where you are next
month and down the road . . . . it’s like raising your children. That’s why
there’s a lot of screwed up kids in this world. Because people don’t have
expectations for them . . . you got to send everybody down the right path.”
His path as a coach has taken him from the NHL, where he spent more than 12
seasons and was named coach of the year for 1990-91, to the senior Bentley,
Alta., Generals, a team he took to the Allan Cup last season, to the Rebels.
The Rebels are owned by his brother Brent, who over the summer signed on as
head coach of the New Jersey Devils.
By taking over as the Rebels’ head coach, Brian is able to raise cattle and
stay involved with hockey. His ranch, where he has 500 head of purebred
Angus, is just a few minutes from the rink in Red Deer.
But the path his Rebels are on these days is full of speed bumps. When they
take to the ice tonight, 7 o’clock, against the Kamloops Blazers, they will
be trying to snap a 10-game losing streak.
To which Sutter says: So what?
“Everybody talks about what our record is . . . those people haven’t watched
our team,” he said. “They don’t know who we’ve got on our team. We’ve got 14
rookies on our roster and about 12 of them are midget-age and about 14 of
them have never lived away from home before. Everything is new to them.”
Just know that the Rebels will put in an appearance tonight — and, yes, they
will get their noses dirty.
“We’re there every night,” Sutter said. “We make mistakes and overcome them
by sticking together and believing in ourselves and expecting a lot from
ourselves.”
At the same time, Sutter and assistant coaches Dallas Gaume and Jesse Wallin
are trying to build a team in every sense of the word.
“We knew we had a big job to do at the beginning of the season and we’re
going through that job,” said Sutter, who totaled 636 points and 1,786
penalty minutes in 779 regular-season NHL games during which he took no
prisoners. “If you think something’s easy in life, guess what? It ain’t.”
With that in mind, Sutter is coaching this season as though he will be
behind the same bench a year from now.
“We’ve got something to build here,” he said. “The last few years, Red Der
has had a young team but really you were plugging young guys in here and
there. Those yong guys aren’t here now.
“We’ve started over this season. We’ve only got three or four guys off our
team last year . . . we’ve got some work to do.”
And building teams at this level, he said, is no different than with any
other age group.
“I’ve coached the youngest and I’ve built some of the best teams in the
National Hockey League and it’s no different here,” he said. “(It’s about)
fundamentals and finding players who want to go in the dressing room and not
let each other down. They want to be as good as they can be.
“You have to find good people, and you have to find character people, and
you’ve got to find guys who want to pay the price. The makeup of a good
hockey club never changes.
“It’s no different than pro. You got to have your veterans; you got to have
your kids. The bottom line is you gotta have a team that grows together,
that understands what it takes together and is prepared to go to battle
every night together.
“As a coach you gotta have the mentality — and we do have that mentality
here — that if we don’t get what we want from that night we just ran out of
time. The sun is going to come up tomorrow morning and we’re going to start
over again.”
And after tonight’s game, the Rebels will get on their bus and head for
another stop on the long grind that is the WHL schedule.
“Everybody asks about the travel,” said Sutter, who has spent more time on a
jet than a bus during his coaching career. “What’s the difference whether
you get on a bus or an airplane?
“Life is what you make it. I learned that a long time ago. I enjoy every day
I wake up. Every day above ground is a good day.”
With that the interview is over. Was it a win or a loss? Who’s counting? But
the sun did come up this morning.