They remember the roar that greeted them when they stepped onto the Chicago Stadium ice to play for the Blackhawks in the 1970s and ’80s.
Back then Darryl Sutter, Curt Fraser, Steve Ludzik and Duane Sutter never imagined that someday they would be coming back to Chicago to stand behind the bench of another team, calling the shots as rival coaches.
When the 2000-01 hockey season began there were three ex-Hawks working as NHL head coaches–Darryl Sutter in San Jose, Fraser in Atlanta and Ludzik in Tampa Bay.
In December, Duane Sutter, who began the season as a pro scout for Florida, made it four when he replaced the fired Terry Murray as the Panthers’ coach.
But now there are just three. The day before Tampa Bay’s Jan. 7 visit to the United Center, Ludzik got a phone call telling him he was out of a job.
“I don’t know what happened in Tampa Bay but I do know that someday Steve will be back coaching in the NHL,” predicted Bob Pulford, the Hawks’ senior vice president.
Pulford has a sentimental side and is proud of what the Sutters, Fraser and Ludzik have accomplished after they ended their playing careers. When Pulford was the Hawks’ coach and general manager, they were his players and, in his heart, that still makes them special even though they’ve gone their separate ways.
“Basically they all were smart players without a great deal of skill,” Pulford recalled. “By that I don’t mean that they weren’t good players. I mean they had to work hard to understand the game in order to become good players.
“I don’t know that any player really starts to study hockey until they’re near the end of their career.
“Darryl was an astute player and he was intense. When he knew he would have to retire because of his knees, I asked him if he wanted to coach in the minors. He went there, and that’s where he started to study hockey. After they quit, all of these players sat down and started to study the game.”
Fraser was hoping to milk one more year out of his career when he accepted an offer from Vancouver “to play 30-40 games [in 1990] and work with the young guys on the team.”
“But my doctors said `No way,”‘ Fraser said. “I told the people in Vancouver and they asked me if I wanted to go to Milwaukee and give the coach [Mike Murphy] a hand as an assistant on the farm team.
“That was the first time coaching ever entered my mind. It took about three or four days in Milwaukee and it dawned on me: `This is for me!’ Something pulled me into it.
“I spent two years as an assistant and two years as head coach in Milwaukee. Then, I went to Orlando and spent four more years coaching in the International Hockey League. The guys who played for me down there in the IHL got me the opportunity to coach in the NHL.”
Darryl Sutter and Fraser both have young teams and both have accomplished a great deal this season. Entering Monday’s games, Sutter had San Jose tied with Dallas for first place in the Pacific Division. Fraser has taken the Atlanta expansion club that’s in its second season and made it into the third-place team in the Southeast Division.
Duane Sutter, meanwhile, is trying to excavate a team that was at the bottom of the Southeast Division when he took over.
“I talked to Dog [Duane] three or four days before they announced it,” Darryl said. “I told him: `Dive in! The only thing that team can do is get better. It can’t get any worse.”‘
Duane is the third of the six Sutters who played in the NHL and the third to coach in the NHL. Preceding he and Darryl was their older brother, Brian, who coached in St. Louis and Calgary.
“Growing up with a big family of brothers you had to learn from each other, you had to push each other and challenge each other,” Darryl said. “And if you look at it that’s what coaching is all about.
“Pully [Pulford] was a huge influence on me. I learned more about the defensive part of the game from him than anybody I’ve ever been around. I had so much respect for him as a coach and as a GM.
“As hard as he was on me, it tells you something that he’s now one of my best friends. He was patient, and when he talked one-on-one he got through in a very simple, straightforward way.”
Darryl began his coaching career with the Hawks’ farm teams in Saginaw and Indianapolis. Then, he became an assistant under Mike Keenan. He succeeded Keenan and spent three seasons coaching the Hawks before resigning to help care for his physically challenged son, Christopher.
“As much as Mike loved the limelight–which is the total opposite of me–he had the ability to surround himself with really good people,” Darryl said. “As hard as he was on his staff and everybody who worked for him, he had a tremendous amount of faith in the people he brought in. That’s the most important thing I learned from Mike.”
One of Darryl Sutter’s assistants is Rich Preston, who was an older teammate when he came to the Hawks. “When you add the assistants, there are a pile of guys from about 10 years in Chicago who have gone on to the NHL,” Darryl said. “Rico [Preston] is with me, Denis Savard is in Chicago and there are a lot of others who have gone into coaching.”
They never won a Stanley Cup, but their cup runneth over with memories from when they called the Stadium “home ice.”
For Fraser, it was a time even before the puck dropped.
“If I could do one thing for all the players who have played for me it would be to line them up for the national anthem in the Stadium on the first night of the playoffs and let them experience what I experienced in Chicago,” he said.
