Michel Goulet wasn’t the only Blackhawk called on the carpet by coach Darryl Sutter after Sunday’s 7-1 loss to St. Louis. But he was the most visible since he was still dripping from his shower and the raised voices heard behind Sutter’s closed door were hard to ignore.
Sutter implied in postgame comments that Goulet was one of the players who failed to keep up with Joe Murphy’s speed. “I can keep up with a lot of players here,” Goulet said Tuesday. “C-A-N.”
Goulet called his session with Sutter “a good meeting. We got our ideas out. It was a frustrating game for everybody. I take it personally. We had a pretty high-level practice today.”
Sutter said after this workout that Goulet remains the logical left wing to play with Murphy and Jeremy Roenick. “I don’t have any concerns he can’t keep up,” Sutter added, mending fences.
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– The Murphy situation is so flexible that Sutter now says he may play him on left wing on a line with Roenick and right wing Steve Larmer. Last week, he said he probably wouldn’t do that.
“I hate to play a pretty good player out of position and Murphy’s position is right wing,” Sutter said. “But people forget Larmer is a pretty good defensive player and I’d like to have him on Roenick’s line for that.”
Sutter said he doesn’t want to play Larmer on the left, although Larmer mentioned he played left wing about half of one season with Denis Savard and Rick Vaive. “It’s different,” he said.
Sutter isn’t even sold yet on keeping Murphy and Roenick together. “Nobody can say that, if he can play with Roenick. It’s wait-and-see. But I’d like to get Murphy into more of a set situation.”