Sutter delivers "message" in meeting before practice

The start of the Devils' practice today at Prudential Center was delayed for 30 minutes while head coach Brent Sutter held a meeting with his team.

There was some video review and talk of technical adjustments, but mostly it was Sutter telling his players that it's time for them to turn in around. They have lost five in a row and have six regular season games left to back on track for the playoffs, including a date with the red-hot Penguins in Pittsburgh Wendesday night.

"I've been pretty positive through this, trusting the group that they're going to get through it." Sutter said. "But now it's time. The foot is down. I mean it's time. Enough is enough. We tried to do things that we thought were appropriate with making sure they have their rest...but they've got to use all of those things to their advantage.

"We need to start dealing with the issues here. Not that we haven't been dealing with them, but we've got to understand this is the way it's got to be done and I'm firm on it. It's just not myself.  Lou (Lamoriello) and I are on the same page on this and we're both firm on this is the way it has to get done and we're expecting the players to do it. It has to be done. We have to get through it and we have to work through it."

But, it's not like Sutter can just snap his fingers and make everyone start playing well again right away.

"It's not something that all of the sudden it's going to turn like that," Sutter said. "It's going to be a process now to get it back. That's why we have to work on that process. I've been through situations like this before as a player. I've been through situations like this before as a coach and there's nothing easy about it. There's no easy way. You've got to really put your head to the grindstone here and get down to it. Everyone is aware of it. The players are aware of it. They see it and they know it. And as coaches we're doing what we can to help them rectify it. And, again, Lou has been tremendously supportive of what we have to do.

"Yet, we have to do it. It has to get done."

According to Sutter, this was not a meeting of give and take where the coaches and players shared opinions. It was the head coach laying it out for his players.

"It's a message from me." he said. "The message is very clear that this is the way it has to be done. Sometimes it's a hard thing to hear, but it's facts, it's the truth and it has to be done."

Sutter has often said that he trusts this group of players. They've overcome a lot already this season with the slew of injuries they had early in the season, including the loss of Martin Brodeur for 50 games. But, though Sutter reiterated that he has trust in the group, he also felt the need to push them.

"Through it all you do trust the group. You have confidence and faith in the group," Sutter said. "Yet, when you start seeing things that shouldn't be happening, you have to nip it in the bud. Unfortunately, whatever level that sometimes happens in, now the coach has to step down here. Does it say that I'm losing trust? No it's not. All it's saying is, 'Listen, this is the way it's got to be done and everybody has to buy in to make sure it gets done.

"The thing about it is, yes it's coming for me, but Lou feels the very same way I do about this that this is the way we've got to get out of this. But it's going to be the accountability of the players. They have to figure it out."  

While there was talk about the gap between forwards and defensemen being too big and the importance of working as a unit of five on the ice, the biggest thing Sutter stressed systematically was the team's loss of aggression.

"This is the thing I said last night: we can't get into a comfort level," Sutter said. "We can't get into comfort zone where you start taking some things for granted and you get a little complacency because now all of the sudden you're starting to do some bad habits. That's what's happened. We're allowing habits that we can't let happen into our game and part of it is because we are too passive. We're not playing that up-tempo game that we like to play."

That's why several of the drills today were one-on-one battles and rushes that required being aggressive and physical.

Sutter said he is considering some lineup changes and adjustments to lines, but would talk about it with Lamoriello later today.

"I haven't decided that yet," Sutter said. "Lou and I will talk about that tonight and tomorrow morning and make a decision that tomorrow."

But it didn't sound like Sutter was looking for answers in some lineup changes.

"It's not that you're sitting here and saying, geez, you need a magic wand to figure this out," Sutter said. "It's pretty simple what our issues are. It's just getting them rectified. The only way you correct the problem is making sure now you say, 'OK, let's get everyone committed. Let's get this resolved.' Let's all look in the mirror and say, 'What are our issues we have to deal with? And let's start getting things back.'"

Comments

[DevilfanFLA]

I trust Sutter and Lou will push the right buttons.

Parise-Rolston-Elias for starters!

ANYBODY?

[Marc]

Rolston can't play Center. We sucked at face-offs last night. Can't break up Zajac and Parise. Zajac tries to set up Parise down low, who else has the hands for those passes?

[Pearl Jammed]

so far so good on the coaches end. I still think he should sit Rolston for a game, and let him know that he should be TRYING to live up the contract he signed

[B.C.]

I really wish Rolston was playing like a number one Center, cuz i would love to see him with Parise and Langs. I think that has the potential to be a mean line if Rolston was really on his game. I know most people werent excited about it, but i'll say that i was excited to get Rolston back in the Devils sweater.

[dannyd]

LA, I think the Rolston at center experiment is over. If you want to try those three together, then maybe with Elias at center. Anything to get Rolston going at this point.

[pando20rules]

interesting idea Devilfan....and the 2nd line would be then Zajac centering Gionta and Langenbrunner?

Could work, if you add Holik between Rupp and Zubrus and Madden centering Clarkson and Shanny.....

[pando20rules]

anyone still think Sutter dosn't care?????

[dannyd]

TG any idea as to what the new lines might be from practice?

[walt]

i very ,very rarely watch any team other than the devils... is it common for other headcoaches to confer w/ the gm on who the scratches are? i remember earlier in the year when weekes had a good game( a couple of times) and the question came up on whether weekes' performance merited getting the start in the next game ,sutter replied "me and lou will talk it over and decide who gets the next start" do alot of gms have that much say on who sits?

[BrotherPucker]

Unless the Devils show me something in these last six games, I will go to the grave saying this. The team picked up its game to a different level when Marty went down because they HAD to. They have slipped back into the Marty-will-save-us mentality.

[Marc]

I do think we should try at least 1 game with Elias and Parise on the same line. If we catch lightning in a bottle, we could ride it into the playoffs.

[DCdevil]

I said three days ago they should be looking at film before the ranger game. Anything and everything should be done to get this team moving again. Even if we lose 2morrow, we better see battles won (especially in our own zone), following up bounds and crashing the net, and Biscuits in the basket. I agree, it might not change over night, but we better see a different team than yesterday.

[Matt]

That's true. Parise and Elias are excellent together in OT at 4 on 4. It would seem natural to put them together as a line. Just my opinion....

[DevilfanFLA]

I'm not crazy about breaking up Parise- Zajaic either but I think we can get the most out of Rolston surrounding hime with Elias/Parise.

OK, WHAT ABOUT BUMPING OUT lANGENBRUNNER AND INSERTING ROLSTON?

Also, think we could get more production out of RUPP if Lou makes him a greeter in the Goal Bar?

[Marc]

Langenbrunner can score on any line. I could see Praise-Zajac-Rolston. Elias-Langerbrunner-Gionta.

[Morgan Doninger]

Rolston is a winger by nature, not a center. He is also a shooter and not a passer. The forwards on this team have three gifted passers, Parise, Zajac and Elias, and of them you want Zach and Patty shooting. The Devils one glaring weakness as they are currently made up is that there is only one playmaking center to distribute the puck and that is Zajac. Our other true centers, Zubris, Madden and Holik are not great set up men. This is why the Devils have to constantly work to score either through the forecheck, to force turnovers for easy scoring chances, the rush, where some talented passing D-men help out, or the cycle. You can juggle the lineup anyway you want, but without another setup guy up front, their will always be a guy trying to to a job he is not suited for, or at best a guy who is shifted out of his natural position.

Having said all this, I still think the Devils can turn this slump around and do some damage in the playoffs. In 1995, they weren't going to win because they couldn't score enough. In 2000, they weren't going to win be cause they couldn't win enough face-offs. In 2003, they weren't going to win because they had an awful powerplay. The Devils have found ways, usually through hard work, to overcome a team deficiency, and I believe this group of guys can do it this year as well. They will have to work very hard to do it, but they can.

[B.C.]

Please correct me if im wrong, but dont Elias, Parise, and Rolston, all play their best at LW? I would think that would be the hardest part about putting them together.

[B.C.]

And i dont mean all 3 of them together on the same line, just putting any of them together...

[DevilfanFLA]

Rolston is a right wing and can play center. Patty of course can play center as well!

[Pat]

Yes, but Elias plays the right boards on the PP so that could be the easiest transition if necessary and Rolston has a left shot so he'd have a good 1-timer from the right side as well.

[Captain Cornholio]

The Devils left Newark at 3:39 and should arrive in Pittsburgh in under an hour.

Is it me, or did this team peak on St. Patrick's Day and go into hiding immediately? It's almost as if Brodeur breaking the record satisfied them as much as a Stanley Cup.

[Just Some guy]

The real reason practice was delayed was because Marty had yet to return from NYC after making Henrik Lundqvist his breakfast in bed and then reading him the comics. He also had to pick up Henrik's dry cleaning and walk his poodle.

[FOTC]

Hmm...could those "lineup changes" mean an addition or two from Lowell?

[Scratch20]

Well we're either very in tune on this blog or Sutter has been reading it, because he has done and said some of the very same things myself and some other people have been saying on here. Good job Sutter, hope it works. The Pens are hot and we need to outplay them tomorrow, and it has to be a decisive win in order to lift morale all around.

[DevilfanFLA]

Another point to be made although it will come across as an excuse is this:
Every team we have played lately ( except for Boston) needed the game more than us!

The bottom line here is once you're in, who cares where your seeded for the most part. Ok , home ice is important but if 1995 teaches us anything...seeding is over rated!