Flames Fire Coaching Staff

[Reinhart]

This was a long time coming. For those that are saying it was a surprise, or that they didn't see it coming... have you watched the Flames play much this year?

Offensively challenged.
Defensively challenged.
Fantastic analytics.

So... what gives? Looks like a coach that was getting the most out of the players, but the players weren't talented enough. Good underlying numbers always means a good system, right? Well.... you would have to watch the Flames play. It was boring hockey, even during most of the wins. It was no 'trap', but it was boring. Not enough high quality scoring chances - analytics be damned.

This is a very good defensive corps, but is isn't loaded with the stay at home types. How do we explain away that aside from Hamilton, every other defencemen regressed in offence? From Giordano, to Brodie, to Hamonic, to Stone. That's a lot of offence. These are all mostly solid 2-way defencemen that can play both sides well. The offence evaporated under Gulutzan, but the defence wasn't nearly strong enough to compensate. This is a defence that should be suppressing more shots while providing more offence, and I would bet that a capable coach WILL get this defence to play a larger role in games.

This team was terribly easy to defend against. They stuck to the perimeter too much, didn't jam the net nearly enough for those second and third opportunities, and continually made the opposing goalies look like heroes. They didn't get the opposing goalies to move nearly enough. It is tough to score goals in the NHL when an NHL-level goalie is set for each shot.

As well, there was simply an unacceptable number of games in which the Flames seemed ill-prepared to start. Under Hartley, they were such a hard-working team that continually just out-worked the opposing team for 3 periods. Lack of talent, lots of injuries, but a continual high-level of effort. I can't say this about the Flames any longer.

They were boring.
They had a disturbing level of effort.
The coach didn't seem to have many answers and wasn't able to get this team to perform CONSISTENTLY until the final 15 games of the season - in which they were consistently bad.
Terrible PP.

Will a new coach completely turn this around, or will it show that the Flames are simply not talented enough? I will go with the first case. This may not be a powerhouse of a team, but they SHOULD have been better. At the very least, you need a coach that can come in and get this team's effort level to be more consistent. Hopefully, it will be a heck of a lot more enjoyable to watch. The Flames were 'fun' to watch under Hartley with a heck of a lot less talent, and not just because of those 'comebacks' - they were legitimately an exciting team to watch. They were speedy and were all over the ice. This team looks like a team full of 35 year old vets - they play slow, their transition is horribly slow, and they simply didn't 'battle' enough.

Please hire a coach that can make this team at least enjoyable to watch again. Hopefully win AND be enjoyable to watch. I will settle for enjoyable at this point.

 

[Blade Paradigm]

The Flames' offensive depth should be pinned on Treliving.

The team's top six forward scorers were, in order, Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund, Ferland, Bennett.

Bennett only had 26 points.

The Flames were 27th in the NHL in Goals For this season. The fact that they competed for a playoff spot is miraculous. They scored fewer goals than Ottawa and Vancouver, and only a handful more than Detroit, Montreal, Arizona, and Buffalo.

In terms of Goals For, they were down there with the NHL's bottom-dwellers this season.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Good move but Calgary has a lot more problems than just coaches.

Gaudreau and Tkachuk are good but there's a whole lot of mediocre-awful after them up front. Also Giordano and Hamilton are good, but then another drop. Not much of a reliable goalie either

 

[JPeeper]

Dave Cameron just turns everything he touches to ****.

One of the worst coaches I've ever seen.

Dave Cameron cost the other two their jobs. If the PP was any good the Flames score another 20-30 goals easily and are in the playoff picture up until the end. Flames probably lost at least 10-12 games this year because the PP would go 0/5 or 0/6 or would look completely lost in a situation where they needed a goal badly. They ended the year 1/55+ after the trade dealine which is like 20 games, at one point in the year they had a stretch of 1 for their last 76. Outside of a 2 week gap where Tkachuk and Monahan were scoring on the PP at will it was sensationally non-existent and often would lose all momentum they gained from 5 on 5 play.

I have no idea how they weren't dead last, like which 3 times were worse? I find that astonishing that 3 teams had a worse PP.

Why he was brought in in the first place is a mystery, the PP was atrocious last year as well. It took 120+ games for them to put Hamilton, one of the best offensive d-men in the entire league on the first unit. Like, are you serious? Tkachuk didn't get 1st unit time until 120+ games in, Brouwer was getting top PP time for ages with 0 results. The PP "system" was a complete joke, 5 on 3 and we have 2 guys below the goal line including our best goal scorer, what in the actual f***.

 

[Sweet Leaf]

I live in Toronto, so I get the obsession Leafs fans have with Burke, but he really doesn’t do a lot in Calgary. I mean look at the Flames roster. It’s one of the smallest, least-gritty rosters in the league. It’s definitely not a Brian Burke team. Frankly the Flames could use some of Burke’s “truculence”.

It still doesn't answer any of my questions of how/why that could possibly work? Why have a figurehead President? Why is Brian Burke there if not to participate in hockey operations? Why would Brian Burke even want that job?

I'd bet it's very similar to the Atkins/Shapiro relationship. Sure Shapiro/Burke are publicly supportive of the GM looking like his own man but there is no way Burke is not having a big say there. And of course Tre doesn't want to seem like some puppet on strings so they make some concessions to the public so everyone feels good.

As for the team not seeming to be a Brian Burke "truculent" team...neither were the Leafs! And the Flames have been trading futures to win now because they overrated their talent. Hmmm who does that sound like? It all sounds like Burke being Burke.

 

[DJJones]

Dave Cameron cost the other two their jobs. If the PP was any good the Flames score another 20-30 goals easily and are in the playoff picture up until the end. Flames probably lost at least 10-12 games this year because the PP would go 0/5 or 0/6 or would look completely lost in a situation where they needed a goal badly. They ended the year 1/55+ after the trade dealine which is like 20 games, at one point in the year they had a stretch of 1 for their last 76. Outside of a 2 week gap where Tkachuk and Monahan were scoring on the PP at will it was sensationally non-existent and often would lose all momentum they gained from 5 on 5 play.

I have no idea how they weren't dead last, like which 3 times were worse? I find that astonishing that 3 teams had a worse PP.

Why he was brought in in the first place is a mystery, the PP was atrocious last year as well. It took 120+ games for them to put Hamilton, one of the best offensive d-men in the entire league on the first unit. Like, are you serious? Tkachuk didn't get 1st unit time until 120+ games in, Brouwer was getting top PP time for ages with 0 results. The PP "system" was a complete joke, 5 on 3 and we have 2 guys below the goal line including our best goal scorer, what in the actual ****.

Apparently we weren't dead last in shooting percentage either. Just shocking but then I remembered that missed shots don't count haha.

 

[Tkachuky]

The team I root for has no bearing bearing on seeing whats wrong with my team and others. lol This ideology makes no sense at all.
This is the Cp mindset though, a lot of incoherent nonsensical rambling.

Pretty ironic comment considering the stuff you say along with your fanbase on the oiler around the league board. But your trolling efforts are pretty stellar. too bad nobody really gives a shit.

 

[MessierII]

Terrible hire from the get go.

 

[Kranix]

It's all on Brad now. Get a coach with pedigree. Like Iron Mike, or Ken Hitchcock

 

[tony d]

Saw this coming, I may have over rated Calgary going into this season in picking their winning the division but still that defense should have gotten them into the playoffs this year.

 

[Sam Spade]

It's all on Brad now. Get a coach with pedigree. Like Iron Mike, or Ken Hitchcock

Hitchcock said he is retiring from coaching.

I think the Flames should go for Trotz as soon as the Caps are eliminated. They definitely need someone with gravitas and instant respect.

 

[Beige Van]

Flames should hire Michel Therrien as their new head coach. He'll teach them character and rispek in spades!

 

[Kranix]

Ken Hitchcock will astonish the hockey world by coming out of retirement to coach the Flames days after he retired.

 

[Sweet Leaf]

Dave Cameron cost the other two their jobs. .

Every HC in the league knows what his team is supposed to do on the PP and how he wants it done. He had 82 games to fix it with Cameron. He didn't. He doesn't get to blame this on the assistant and neither should fans.

 

[Sweet Leaf]

Man what a sweet set up Burke has. He can still be Brian Burke overrating his talent and trading away futures because of it but it's everyone else's fault! He's just a "figurehead". Lol!

He figured out a way to be Brian Burke without getting heat for being Brian Burke. I have to tip my hat to him.

 

[Mobiandi]

Hartley was a ruthless tyrant in the locker room according to various sources and had the players playing irresponsible hockey. 2014-15 was fun but he had to go

 

[Oilers Propagandist]

Pretty ironic comment considering the stuff you say along with your fanbase on the oiler around the league board. But your trolling efforts are pretty stellar. too bad nobody really gives a ****.

Link pls?

 

[Hunter368]

Coaching is far from the only thing needing to be fixed with the Flames. I expect to see more changes before September

 

[Dzonna]

Oh no there’s gunna be an over population of sticks now

 

[McVespa99]

No, our Gm and president says "we have a plan."

Does that plan include more losing and trading our best assets for pennies on the dollar? If so we are F*$*&#!

 

[kittiecarlyle]

The firings, does this make it more of a probability for several trades or not?

 

[Reinhart]

Hartley was a ruthless tyrant in the locker room according to various sources and had the players playing irresponsible hockey. 2014-15 was fun but he had to go

Disagree here.

Hartley was way too hard, you are right when it comes to that. Irresponsible hockey though? He specifically wanted everyone to play 2-way hockey. Why do you think he ran such a tough camp? He allowed the team to play creative offence, with the caveat that they skate back HARD on defence. Comparing the shots against per game from one year to the next and comparing that to Gulutzan wasn't much different, especially if you rank the teams on a yearly basis. The man squeezed blood from a stone, and it took an epic collapse of the goaltenders (none of which are in the NHL) to have a disappointing season. This was through the rebuild.

How the hell were the shots against fairly close (especially in ranking) as compared to Gulutzan's tenure with that horrible lineup? Tough to explain that away.

 

[IceManCat]

Did anyone use the headline:

"Coaching Staff Goes Up in Flames"

 

[madmike77]

The firings, does this make it more of a probability for several trades or not?

Trades were pretty much a foregone conclusion with or without a coaching change. They need to unload some D.

A scoring RW would be nice, but likely not easy to find.

 

[Backlund]

Disagree here.

Hartley was way too hard, you are right when it comes to that. Irresponsible hockey though? He specifically wanted everyone to play 2-way hockey. Why do you think he ran such a tough camp? He allowed the team to play creative offence, with the caveat that they skate back HARD on defence. Comparing the shots against per game from one year to the next and comparing that to Gulutzan wasn't much different, especially if you rank the teams on a yearly basis. The man squeezed blood from a stone, and it took an epic collapse of the goaltenders (none of which are in the NHL) to have a disappointing season. This was through the rebuild.

How the hell were the shots against fairly close (especially in ranking) as compared to Gulutzan's tenure with that horrible lineup? Tough to explain that away.

Defensive zone coverage under Hartley was pretty bad though. Which was the price for the offensive freedom they were given. They were running around the defensive zone with no real structure. Hartley simply knew how to use the players he had better than Gulutzan. He didn't have a great core to work with at the time but he was able to get them to compete every night. Hartley and Gulutzan's system are almost two different extremes.

Hartley tossed caution to the wind and had the defense jump into the rush whenever they felt. They were constantly applying pressure and forcing mistakes so that they could go on the attack. It was extremely aggressive and caused some big defensive lapses that we didn't have the goaltending or defense to make up for. But the team was exciting and their compete level was never in question.

Gulutzan wanted every decision to be calculated. Make the safe play, chip the puck up the ice, along the boards and contain it along the perimeter until they found an opening to attack. It was too patient and the focus on puck possession was pointless because they lost the attack mentality Hartley established so they didn't know what to do with it. The players were in their heads too much trying to make the right play instead of going off instinct. They seemed almost scared of making decisions at times because when things went wrong they started second guessing themselves and the mistakes would pile up.

Hartley was never going to last here longterm but he knew how to use the players he had. Gulutzan's attempts to get them to play his system just led to more problems. The Flames need a coach who has a bit of both their qualities. They need to balance Hartley's all out attack with Gulutzan's puck possession. Someone who will allow the defense to jump in the rush like Hartley but also make sure they know when to make the safe plays.