Kings Coach Darryl Sutter talks about team’s approach to analytics

Of course, Kings Coach Darryl Sutter is an analytics guy.

Just a secret one.

It’s been the hot topic in the NHL this season. Embraced in some quarters, ripped in others and the seemingly the source of new employment for many people, even media members.

“We use it. As we see fit,” Sutter said on Thursday after the morning skate. “We’ve used it for the last two years, a lot. We have specific things we don’t care to publicly talk about, that we think are really important in those analytics.

“And they’ve proved true over a period of time -- over the graph of it -- it doesn’t necessarily mean tonight it’s going to have an impact.

“But after so many games against that [particular] team, or after so many home games, or so many road games or after a road trip or a home stand, we can correlate, there is a correlation between how the coaches individually rate players to the analytics that we use.

“You use it to your benefit. You use it as you see fit. Not as …”

He trailed off. But his point was that it was not the one and only tool, merely supplemental.

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty got a lot of attention during a road trip during the preseason when he hilariously called advanced statistics “a bunch of crap” in an interview with Jon Rosen, on the team’s website.

The Kings have not gone so far as to hire bloggers devoted to analytics like the Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers.

“We went past that a couple of years ago without everybody having to know about it,” Sutter said.

Some veteran Sutter observers suspected he was an analytics guy. Last season, TSN analyst Ray Ferraro joked that Sutter was into analytics but “he would never let anyone know.”

Sutter, formerly a general manager in Calgary, pointed out an obvious issue, that arbitration cases required the extensive use of statistics, needing an “in-depth study,” going beyond “what the coach thought.”

He noted how hockey has changed and got off a good line about the old TV series, “M*A*S*H.” Sutter played for the Blackhawks and was later an assistant coach and eventually head coach in Chicago.

“My first job as an assistant coach – I’ll tell you how much the game has changed – my first job as assistant coach was to be like Radar (O’Reilly) and carry the big box with the phone in it,” Sutter said.

“Make sure you’ve got your the keys to the room and the right seat on the airplane and carry the new phone that was out. That’s what it was. So it’s changed.”