Matter of fact, the ever-reliable Dog Sutter also could be called intrepid, industrious, indomitable; you name it, Duane fit all descriptions to a T, as in terrific and tenacious.
How about this to prove a point. In Dog's rookie season the Islanders won their first Stanley Cup. After Sutter's fourth campaign, they had gone four-for-four with championships. Duane was a big reason for the happy happenings.
Despite scoring a monumental goal or two -- plus getting four rings in four years --Duane is more remembered for his dogged digging and yapping than his other successful enterprises for the Islanders.
"Let's face it," Sutter asserted without objection, "I got the nickname Dog because of the way i played; and because of the way I yapped. I figured that if I could get someone off his game with something I said, I was doing my job."
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
Brent Sutter: Anonymous Star
Patrick Flatley: Chairman of the Boards
Appreciating Butch Goring
Maven's Haven
He certainly earned his keep during the 1980 Stanley Cup Final. In the fateful Game Six -- with New York leading three games to two -- it was Dog who scored the game's second goal to put his club ahead 2-1.
From that point on Arbour's sextet never fell behind and captured the throne on Bob Nystrom's sudden-death winner. But without Dog's big, red light and grim determination, the result could have gone Philly's way.
"I took my lumps for the club, which is why I know that I contributed to that win," Duane asserted. "I was asked to be a grinder and -- most of the time but not all the time -- I had no qualms about doing what Radar asked of me."
Ironically, Sutter actually did have a lot of qualms about coming to Nassau after being plucked 17th overall by general manager Bill Torrey in the 1979 Entry Draft.
In author Dean Spiros' excellent biography of the Sutter Brothers, "Six Shooters," Duane delivered a hitherto unreported fact; he did not want to join the Islanders. What's more, he told Torrey so before the Draft began.
Sutter: "Bill phoned me the morning of the Draft and said that if I still was available when it was time for the Islanders pick, he'd select me. I said, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'
"I told him straight out that I didn't want to play in a big city like New York with all those skyscrapers. But when my older brother, Brian, heard about it he called me and screamed, 'The Islanders are one of the best organizations.'"
That changed Dog's mind. He opened the season with a cup of coffee in Uniondale but was not quite ready for The Show.
Torrey briefly returned Duane to his Junior team in Lethbridge, Alberta; but not for long. Torrey knew his club needed some youthful pizazz and promoted Sutter early in November 1979.
"Jean Potvin took me under his wing," Duane remembered. "He was a tremendous help. After practices he'd come over to me and say, 'Let's go have a beer; we need to talk.' Jean talked a lot and I learned a lot from him."