NHL Deadline Day: Darryl Sutter Says Keep the Action off the Ice

Darryl Sutter just made a very astute point.  The NHL shouldn't schedule games on the same day as the trade deadline.

As much fun as we have, cackling with glee and rubbing our hands as players furiously change hands, we can't forget that these players are only human.  They have wives, children, homes, and lives outside of their careers.  What we see as a game is their whole world.

While we speculate about odds and improvements, these men are placing tearful calls to their families, packing their bags, and suddenly trying to rearrange their professional and personal lives.  

They leave the friends and teammates they know well to enter what may have formally been the enemy's dressing room.

Maybe you're a gritty player on a Cup contending team who's been traded for a little more firepower.  Suddenly, your dreams of hoisting that Cup have never seemed farther out of reach.  Would your head be in the game the night you heard the news?

Perhaps you’re not traded.  However, your actions and decisions leading up to the deadline have been under so much scrutiny that it has turned fans against you.  

The dressing room atmosphere in many places will be tense tonight, to say the least.  What do you do when guys are suddenly missing from your lineup?  

The traded players don't always show up overnight.  They have to finish paperwork, visas, cross borders, etc.  You don't just throw someone on the ice without a practice at least.  

Sutter, in a press conference just after the 3:00 PM EST deadline, said that no games should be played today.  And he's right.  

We have enough to entertain us on deadline day.  Give the boys a rest and let them piece their lives back together.