Darryl Sutter sometimes feels like a teacher trying to get his point across to slow learners.
It’s not the offense, stupid. It’s the defense. Always will be, forever and ever, amen.
Just when the coach thinks his Blackhawks have grasped the basic principles of his decidedly unglamorous system, his players go and read a newspaper.
You might not think statistics can be that subversive. But Sutter has seen players knocked sidewise by those numbers. They start thinking of winning 6-5 or 5-4, and the grinding and expected 3-2, 2-1 victories are ignored.
“They are easily manipulated by smart idiots like you guys,” he said, giving a novel twist to why the Hawks have scored two goals or less in eight of their last 10 games.
Sutter was smiling at this intended media compliment, not unlike the hangman before he unlatches the trap door.
He agrees that Jeremy Roenick (18 goals) and Joe Murphy (17 goals)-to name only the sour cream of his crop-need to play better. But that doesn’t mean he’s looking for more goals from them. He wants Roenick and Murphy to pay more attention to their defensive duties.
Otherwise, their chances of halting a losing streak at four games and ending a slump in which they have lost six of eight games remain in doubt as they meet Tampa Bay Thursday at the Stadium.
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“Our best defensive players are still our best defensive players,” Sutter explained slowly, so he wouldn’t have to repeat a view he has expressed repeatedly, “but the problem we are having is that our so-called skill players are not playing our game. That’s why we’re struggling.
“They are trying to beat people one-on-one. Sometimes, that means they have to beat them twice. Essentially, that’s a turnover.”
While others focus on Roenick scoring three goals in the last 20 games and Murphy one in his last nine games, Sutter goes in the opposite direction. He says he was angered at reading in Tuesday’s Tribune that Roenick insists his greatest suppressed fear is that the Hawks can’t win if he and Murphy are shut down.
“That’s strictly bull,” Sutter said. “If they think that, well, they only have a few more goals than other guys. Just shows they’re not doing enough.
“Jeremy should just pay attention to what kind of player he is and not try to solve all the problems he thinks we have.”
Does he accept Roenick’s criticism of him, that Sutter violates his own advice to the team and soars too high after victories and plummets too low after losses?
“I think that’s his problem, just another excuse for individual performance,” Sutter said. “Jeremy’s a young guy (24 next Monday). He should be looking at Chris Chelios and seeing if he gets too high or low, that’s who he should be paying attention to.”
As for Murphy, Sutter thinks his mental preparation is too soft.
“He probably thinks it’s going to come easier for him than it is,” he said. “He’ll have a good first period and then you get somebody different on the ice in the second period.
“He wants to be recognized as a top player in the game, but is he a support skill player or an elite skill player? There’s a heckuva difference.”
Sutter agrees with General Manager Bob Pulford that a trade is needed to add a skill player or two.
“The overall skill has to improve, and that’s fine, as long as it’s not a disruptive situation,” he noted, meaning trading for a selfish player. “But it’s not that easy to do.”
As Sutter left the Stadium Wednesday for a downtown luncheon with defenseman Chris Chelios, he expected a big crowd in spite of his team’s travails.
“You know what they say,” he remarked, “more people like to come to a hanging than a wedding.”