Sutter is the same coach as Hitch and to an extent Yeo is. They all play a defense first style of hockey, and are stubborn about changing. In the case of Hitch and Sutter teams flourish under them when they are new in their regime but over time they lose the room because they don't have an adaptive style of hockey for today's modern game (we saw that with Hitch when he took over, and Dallas is seeing that bloom happen this year). Also Sutter had much more solidly built team in LA, and the Stars are a well assembled roster by Jim Nill. The Blues like most teams are getting away from the heavy hitting, slow pace game, and adapting their roster to a speed and skill game played by the majority of teams in the league. The problem is, Armstrong saw that change in style just two seasons ago, and teams like Pittsburgh, Nashville, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Dallas, Edmonton, etc, etc. were building their rosters for that game during the time period Hitch was going year to year with his contracts. If you want consistent success out of a coach in today's NHL DO NOT hire a Sutter, Hitch or Yeo type coach. Look Gerard Gallant, Travis Green, Mike Johnson, Pete Deboer younger coaches that can relate to young players and coach a very adaptive system to speedy and skilled players. Or you look for older coaches that are willing to change with the times of the game. Hiring Sutter, or a similar person would set you back years, further than what we are going through with Yeo.
And honestly what we are going through this year is what I predicted would last season, I knew when Armstrong made the determination to finally break away from the physical, big bodied, grinder, type of lineup we would have a step back to go forward season. Apparently it came a season later than I expected.