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Flames’ shocking start fuelled largely by buying into Darryl Sutter’s system
If Craig Conroy hadn’t seen it before, he might not have believed it was possible.
Just as Darryl Sutter did almost two decades earlier when he transformed Conroy’s struggling Calgary club into a Stanley Cup finalist, the Jolly Rancher has reinvented the Flames once again.
Contrary to popular belief heading into the season, this team is good.
As in, 7-1-3 good.
And the man chiefly responsible for bringing the best out of a previously beleaguered bunch is indeed Sutter.
“When I played it out in my mind, this is kind of what I was hoping for – this is what you think Darryl can do,” said Conroy, the Flames centre-turned assistant GM when asked how much credit Sutter deserves for the team’s shocking start.
“I think a lot of this has to do with Darryl. I know it’s early, but this is a Darryl Sutter hockey team.”
The NHL’s fourth-place team is days away from a seven-game road trip that will have plenty of eastern observers wondering how any of this is possible from a playoff-less team that was unable to replace its captain in the summer.
There are plenty of explanations for how the team has transformed, but no one has played a bigger role than Sutter.
The players have bought into his defence-first, detail-oriented system, which puts a premium on quick transitions and tenacious forechecking.
“That’s one thing about Darryl, he squeezes every ounce out of whatever you can give out of you, and wants a little bit more,” said Conroy, who watched his rag-tag bunch rally around Sutter to get to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, against all odds.
“He’s had time with them and it just seems like everything has kind of jelled. He knows the line combinations he wants and what he wants to do. The players are playing great for him and the goaltender is playing great. He puts you in an uncomfortable spot where you’re a little tense, but you want to do well for him.”
They’ve responded.
And it’s the way they’ve done it that has surprised many.
Although several off-season acquisitions like Nikita Zadorov and Erik Gudbranson suggested Sutter hoped to employ the bruising style that led the LA Kings to two Stanley Cups, the reality is the Flames’ calling card is a work ethic and cohesiveness that has them playing as a five-man unit.
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Everyone has bought in, which has been made easier by a coach who clearly defines roles and has the depth to slot players according to their ability.
He plucked Sean Monahan from his longtime perch on the top line and has given him a checking role in the bottom-six.
He empowered once-forgotten defenceman Oliver Kylington through training camp and has been rewarded with a player who is thriving in a top-four that had a gaping hole after Mark Giordano was plucked by Seattle.
His blue line-by-committee approach has the team fourth in goals against.
“Darryl and his staff have done a hell of a job,” said Flames GM Brad Treliving. “He’s a top coach. He’s a big part of our early season success.
“Maybe we were the only guys who thought it – I know everyone wanted to bury everybody – but we’ve got good players. We’ve got a good coach who brings really good structure, and holds people accountable, and puts people in the right situation.”
True to the form Sutter has exhibited throughout the team’s 10-game point streak, Treliving is quick to bring the discussion back to earth.
“Now, let’s just pump the brakes – we’ve played 11 games,” he said. “We’ve had a decent start, but we don’t put a whole lot of stock in what we did yesterday. Sounds cliché, but we worry about the next day.”
That’s the mentality on display when Sutter is even more ornery following wins than he is losses.
His goal seems to be to remind players that until they lift a Stanley Cup, they haven’t accomplished a lick.
“That’s what’s good about Darryl, he keeps up honest and he keeps us on point,” said Rasmus Andersson, whose club is forever guarding against the type of lengthy slumps that have plagued them the last handful of years. “There is more you can give in every single game. You never really play the perfect game.”
Boy, have they been close a few times this year, shutting out the opposition in four of their last nine outings, outscoring opponents 36-14 in that stretch.
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Gone are the slow starts this team was known for.
On the odd nights they haven’t scored first there is a belief that, as long as they stick to the system, they are capable of coming back — unlike last season.
It’s a highly motivated group, whose core has taken a beating in the court of public opinion following years of playoff failures, punctuated by last season’s fifth-place finish in the Canadian division. After taking the second half of last season to adjust to Sutter’s now approach, they knew what to expect from him this year and did their part to be ready for it.
“I think the guys were pissed off about last year,” said Conroy, whose coach made it known every player’s fitness level had to be better. “When they went home last summer there were a lot of sour, disappointed people. Everybody went home with a mission. It wasn’t good enough.
“You could tell coming into camp, and looking at guys coming in in shape, what they were doing. You’re thinking everyone was embarrassed and pissed off about not making it. Their mental attitude, plus what Darryl brings, is just a nice combination.”
So is having Jacob Markstrom playing like the Six Million Dollar Man he was paid to be two summers ago.
“The way Marky started reminds me of Kipper (Miikka Kiprusoff) in that when we make a mistake he makes a big save and gets us going and then we win the game,” added Conroy. “It’s a combination: Darryl has done a ton and the players have also done a ton. And they’re buying into what he’s saying. I think it’s just a good mix.”
Perhaps the most surprising thing this season has been just how entertaining the Flames have been.
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This isn’t just a team sitting back in the neutral zone trap, blocking shots and trying to win games 1-0. They’re an opportunistic group of forechecking freaks who pressure teams all over the ice, finish checks, and have translated that into far more scoring chances than anyone thought possible.
The team currently sits fourth in the league with 40 goals.
A big part of that is spearheaded by the top line Sutter assembled, which has Elias Lindholm, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk putting on passing displays that have made them one of the league’s most dangerous trios.
“I just think Darryl expects a lot out of every player – if you’re not playing, if you’re not performing, he’s going to let you know,” said Gaudreau, who has also bought in to being far more impactful on the defensive side of the puck. “Whether we win or lose, he holds guys accountable. I think that’s something we’ve been missing in the past here over the past six or seven years. We haven’t had a coach like this to make sure guys show up each night.”
Every night.
The only regulation-loss came opening night against a juggernaut Oilers squad in Edmonton, where the Flames had every reason to be proud of their effort.
At the conclusion of last season it was Milan Lucic who suggested what the Flames were missing was between the ears.
Sutter has filled that space with a plan and a mindset that has the Flames believing something few others did: this team could actually be a contender.
The timing had lined up perfectly for Jamie Ritchie to enjoy an off-day in New York. The Buffalo Bisons played in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. last Sunday and weren’t due back in Buffalo until Tuesday, so Jamie and his wife, Lauren, opted to fit in a day exploring NYC.
The timing of The Call was less kismet.
Ritchie was nearly back in Buffalo when Bisons manager Casey Candaele called to let him know he was joining the Toronto Blue Jays on their taxi-squad; He was headed for New York, where he’d just returned from, the following morning as the Blue Jays had a series against the Yankees. The flight from Buffalo to New York was a short one; the jump from minor-league off-day to major-league taxi squad was not.
“Taxi squad” is a term for a group of players that a team can have around as additional depth without putting them on the active roster, “taxi-ing” between triple-A and the majors as needed. It was used heavily during the pandemic-adjacent seasons and is available for the playoffs, but its use is limited in a normal season. Teams can have a player on the taxi squad only if they’re anticipating putting a player on the injured list or, in some cases, a third catcher.
Enter Ritchie, who has spent the last few years working his way to this emergency-catcher status.
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Drafted in 2014 by the Houston Astros, Ritchie has played at triple-A since the middle of 2018. After Houston, Ritchie spent a year in the Arizona Diamondbacks system, then nearly made the Pittsburgh Pirates out of spring training in 2022 before suffering an oblique injury. In January, the Blue Jays signed him for additional depth at the attrition position.
“I was fortunate to get that opportunity and just tried to keep my head down this year and play,” he said. “Whatever the opportunity was, just try and take advantage of it. Some things have gone my way this year to be on the taxi squad, so just trying to prepare and be ready for anything because you never know what tomorrow brings in baseball.”
Even then, Ritchie wouldn’t have guessed he would be the player in this spot. He entered the season as Buffalo’s depth catcher, without a guarantee of significant playing time. Alejandro Kirk, Danny Jansen, Tyler Heineman, Rob Brantly, and Stevie Berman were all ahead of him on paper. Slowly, Ritchie moved up the depth chart and was the top triple-A catcher standing when the Jays wanted to add insurance behind Kirk and Heineman ahead of the playoffs.
The role is not a glamorous one. The idea is for Ritchie to shadow the team’s other catchers so that he’s up to speed in the event of the most dire of situations, where Kirk and/or Heineman join Jansen on the injured list. He is the extinguisher inside the glass that’s broken in case of emergency, tucked behind an additional pane of emergency glass.
Ritchie’s first time visiting new Yankee Stadium saw him arrive as early as possible to get his hitting work in before roster players arrived to do theirs. He is the lowest priority, so if Ritchie can’t get batting practice in on the field with the first group, he’ll look for a spot with a later group or, if all else fails, hit in the cages when there’s a gap in his day. There are also hitters’ meetings to go over scouting reports, and possibly some work in the field.
The headline item for Ritchie, though, is the pre-game battery meeting. Those sessions include pitching coach Pete Walker, that day’s starting pitcher, Kirk, Heineman, and the injured Jansen. The group goes through the various reports and game-plan for that day’s hitters. Each series also has a similar meeting with the team’s relievers.
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The goal is to take a wealth of information and narrow it down to something actionable in a pitch-calling situation. That’s especially important for a call-up who hasn’t been in the organization very long.
“Working through all the data information to condense it to try and make it as easy as possible to understand,” he said. “Every organization has their different system of analytics that they use and not everyone’s the same as far as their data points. Like the wrist bands that we use to call pitches. Reading those and understanding, I guess you could say, the language that they use.”
As needed, Ritchie will also help catch pitcher side-sessions and other work. At this point in the year, few relievers are doing true bullpen sessions, but even flat-ground catch gives Ritchie a chance to get familiar with a pitcher and his stuff. The goal is for Ritchie to have familiarity with every pitcher on the roster, whether from spring training, Buffalo, or this recent stint.
“So you’re not back there for the first time catching Jordan Hicks’ 102-m.p.h. fastball or something,” Ritchie joked.
Once the game begins, Ritchie can be in the dugout observing or in the bullpen helping pitchers. Most relievers have a routine with bullpen catchers Luis Hurtado and Alex Andreopoulos, so Ritchie’s games are spent in a mental dress rehearsal, talking through situations with the pitchers who aren’t in the game and anticipating what he would call in each spot.
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“You go through the scouting report in your mind,” he said. “The pitches that are called, are they matching up with what I’m thinking? I can go back during the game and look at where (Chris) Bassitt was throwing his two-seam and where Kirk was setting up. That type of thing, to reiterate in my mind what we went through in the pregame.”
The experience is short-lived. After series in New York and Tampa, the Jays have returned home, where roster rules are more restrictive. The post-season is still a week away, so this is a kind of limbo-week for Ritchie and other Bisons who may join the postseason taxi squad — Buffalo’s season ended Sunday.
He now waits armed with more experience, more intel, a few better pre-game meals, and the knowledge that at age 30, his major-league dream is close.
“it meant a lot,” Ritchie said. “It did, because this game, if you play it long enough, will bring a lot more downs than ups. That was definitely an up in that situation, to kind of get that feedback and some affirmation to how the Blue Jays maybe think about you as a player. So it’s meant a lot to be here and be around these guys.”
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