From an outsider's view looking in, and one that is pretty familiar with Darryl Sutter... I think it is a great move.
Darryl's biggest flaw is that he is absolutely HORRID with the media. They ate him alive in Calgary (and he doesn't hide the fact that he hates media). The continually ridiculed him.
His body of work really speaks for itself - he turned the Calgary Flames around. Sure, there was that 72 hour 'craziness' of trades, but that was from a GM perspective (and he had been exceptionally solid until that point).
Darryl as a coach - he will make all the players accountable. Just look at what he did with the Flames in the early 2000's. Years of bad coaching, poor player development, poor drafting... there was nothing to cheer about on the Flames except Jarome Iginla and Robyn Regehr. They didn't play as a unit. They didn't play a decent 'system'. Most importantly, they didn't play HARD.
Sutter came in, and changed the culture of the Flames. He FORCED everyone to buy in. You didn't buy in, you didn't play. Heck - he benched Jarome during some games. I remember Conroy laughing about it as they were talking about Darryl. Something along the lines of "Don't you two princesses worry about going back out there and chipping a nail. You guys are done for the night."
Seems like to me, LA is a very good team, and probably needs a 'tough as nails' coach. The players tuned out TM, sure.. but there are 2 reasons they can't tune out Darryl:
1) Just try. Really. He WILL force them to remain responsible.
2) LA just did a coaching change. Players know the next step is trades. You don't replace a coach twice in the same year.
As for Darryl stifling offence - I wouldn't worry about it. Darryl has a huge eye for talent. He puts players in positions to succeed. He pushes players. He makes players accountable to one another. He WILL make LA a team that is difficult to play against, and that will generate some additional offence. He doesn't play the trap. He demands work ethic. If you are lazy, you simply don't play. It is that simple with Darryl.
I am really happy to hear Darryl is in LA. Always thought he was a phenomenal coach. Expect him to have 'run-ins' with the media during the rough patches - he simply is just so poorly spoken. People will call him stuff like "Stupid farmer", "idiot", etc., but he is actually quite intelligent.
I really can't think of a better fit for LA right now. Sure, he is 'recycled' and 'old-school', but he is one of those coaches that should never have stopped coaching to begin with.
I am sure the first couple of weeks will still be 'rough' for LA, but in a month, I bet you are going to see a much, much better LA Kings skating hard every shift.
