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| - Darryl Sutter, who guided the Calgary Flames into the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, has returned as coach after the National Hockey League club fired Geoff Ward as head coach. The move came late Thursday night after the Flames had started the 2020-21 campaign at 11-11 with two overtime losses, fifth in the North division of all Canadian squads and two points out of a playoff spot. Sutter first coached the Flames from 2002 through 2006, masterminding a run to the finals in 2004, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also served as the team's general manager from 2003-2010. Sutter, among six of seven brothers who all played in the NHL, had coached at Chicago and San Jose previously and went on to guide the Los Angeles Kings to Stanley Cup titles in 2012 and 2014. Since July 2019, Sutter had been an advisor for the Anaheim Ducks coaching staff. Ward, who took over as coach in November 2019, went 35-26-5 in the first NHL coaching post. He guided the Flames past Winnipeg in the qualifying round of last year's playoffs, exapnded due to a Covid-19 shutdown, but they lost to eventual Western Conference champion Dallas in the next series. Until last season, the Flames had won only one prior playoff series victory since Sutter got them to the 2004 NHL Final. Before that season, Calgary had not won a playoff series since capturing the Stanley Cup in 1989. Sutter, 62, went 634-467-83 with 101 drawn over 17 seasons as an NHL head coach with the Flames, Kings, Chicago and San Jose. Ward was the second NHL coach fired this season after Montreal axed Claude Julien last week. js/rcw
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