Darryl Sutter Forced a Kids Parents to Miss His First NHL Game With Ridiculous Move

"Pelletier what number was he? Then pick up the stat sheet to share his time played.

"Players really don't like this type of thing. And tell you what, I had a person reach out to me who had a similar experience years ago in his first NHL game. He had flown in the day before and the team hadn't given him any indication whether he was gonna play or not. So, he's got his family calling him, asking, "Are you in the lineup? We need to book airfare. We need to get there, we want to see this." And he kept saying, 'I don't think I'm going to play, so I don't know, I don't know." The night before, nothing. Morning skate, nothing. Did the coaches even talk to him? Sutter didn't talk to him, didn't even make eye contact, anything. None of the other coaches even said anything about him playing or not. It finally took a teammate telling him he was in the lineup and, by that point, it was too late for his parents to attend his first NHL game.

Darryl's as old-school as they get. Your coach doesn't have to be your best friend. But you don't forget these things. The person who talked to me just couldn't stand that. These are important moments. The dismissiveness toward Pelletier, to me, it comes across as Sutter thinks it's a joke."

- Mike McKenna