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Geoff Ward... Keep him or find someone else?

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Rubi

Rubi

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I thought I'd start this thread because the regular season is finished and the real playoffs start tomorrow.

Geoff Ward still has the title "Interim Head Coach". When Ward took over coaching the team on November 27 2019 (has it really been that long? Seems like just a few weeks ago.) the Flames record was 11-12-4. Ward won his first game against Buffalo that night. Counting the last four games the Flames just played against the Jets, Ward's record as the Flames HC is 28-16-3.

What do you think?

Anyways... I thought I'd post this to let everyone know, who hasn't been game counting, how the Flames have been doing under Ward and our overall record this year (39-28-7) doesn't really reflect the Ward HC era.
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Anglesmith

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I would like to see a coach with significant recent success come in. This is a critical year upcoming, and this team badly needs a strong system to bring the best out of its talented core.
 
Mobiandi

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I didn't like what he was doing in the regular season after his hot streak ended. He was good against WPG. Let's see if he can keep this up against Dallas
 
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Nanuuk

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Keep him. He's been an assistant forever and has accumulated enough knowledge. He has great people skills and has subtlety yet decisively changed the way the Flames have played. There is more to come from this coach.
 
SKRusty

SKRusty

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Very premature to have this discussion. Where is the line is it a playoff round? Round 2, 3 , or 4.. Or is it performance of the players they battle with the opposition but come up short either due to injuries or circumstances out of their control... Martin Gelinas type of goal called back...

Ward has earned an honest analysis of the teams and his performance. Until the season closes on the Flames I don't think an answer can be found.

Ward had the team prepared much better than Peters. Gio and Chucky both complimented Ward on his ability to united the dressing room and to buy into 1 gameplan. This series with the Stars will go a long way to answering many of the questions that need to be answered. All I know is the defensive system was much better and disciplined.
 
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Rubi

Rubi

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Flames Fanatic said:
Let's see how this round goes.
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If the Flames win this round will it change your opinion? If they lose the next round will it change your opinion?

It won't change mine. Ward has coached the Flames for 46 games and four months now. Surely that's long enough to make a determination on his abilities.
  • Do the Flames like playing under Ward? Yes
  • Are the Flames winning under Ward? Yes
  • Is the offense scoring more under Ward? Yes
  • Have the Flames tightened up defensively under Ward? Yes. (Remember all those 1 on zeros, two on ones, and three on twos the Flames used to give up every game? You rarely see those now)
  • Has this team become a tight goup? By all accounts, from other team members, yes.
  • Has Ward got Lucid playing better? Yes
  • Is Bennett playing better? Yes
  • Has he placed Mangiapane and Dube in positions where they will succeed? Yes
I could go on and on.
 
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Fig

Fig

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If we whimper out this round like last year vs Colorado, I can see why we move on from him. But if he's convincing all the way up to WCF, even if he loses, I can see reasons for giving him another shot and keeping him as HC.
 
Anglesmith

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Personally, even when we won against the Jets, I wasn't happy with details in our system. So winning alone doesn't make me want to keep Ward necessarily.

I think it's not a good idea to hold on to a coach because they managed to get the team to overachieve over a small sample. We did that with Hartley, and the very next season they were a completely different team and all the flaws were exposed.
 
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Fig

Fig

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Anglesmith said:
Personally, even when we won against the Jets, I wasn't happy with details in our system. So winning alone doesn't make me want to keep Ward necessarily.

I think it's not a good idea to hold on to a coach because they managed to get the team to overachieve over a small sample. We did that with Hartley, and the very next season they were a completely different team and all the flaws were exposed.
Click to expand...

Newbie coach, no training camp, major distraction, decent record. He's done reasonably well for the hand he was dealt.

I'm not saying I prefer him over Lavi, BB or GG yet, but I can see the reasoning if he is given the reigns full time after the ploffs.
 
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Mobiandi

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If this team wins more than a playoff round (i.e. Dallas + Vegas/Colorado), chances are we stick with Ward full-time. He's cheap for the ownership group, the players seem to like him, he'd previously interviewed for the job, and Hall apparently loves him.

I think Treliving needs to look at Philly. Average goaltending, disappointing forward group, strong defense that all kicked it up a notch once they ditched Hakstol and got AV. There's two guys out there who fit the bill but if we want them, we have to be comfortable with bowing out early or in an embarrassing way again
 
Flames Fanatic

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Rubi said:
If the Flames win this round will it change your opinion? If they lose the next round will it change your opinion?

It won't change mine. Ward has coached the Flames for 46 games and four months now. Surely that's long enough to make a determination on his abilities.

  • Do the Flames like playing under Ward? Yes
  • Are the Flames winning under Ward? Yes
  • Is the offense scoring more under Ward? Yes
  • Have the Flames tightened up defensively under Ward? Yes. (Remember all those 1 on zeros, two on ones, and three on twos the Flames used to give up every game? You rarely see those now)
  • Has this team become a tight goup? By all accounts, from other team members, yes.
  • Has Ward got Lucid playing better? Yes
  • Is Bennett playing better? Yes
  • Has he placed Mangiapane and Dube in positions where they will succeed? Yes
  • I could go on and on.
Click to expand...

Yes. I need more than a small sample size to commit IF there are big names out there that would come here. We still had HUGE problems in the second half of the season imo.

If we go out with a whimper again, no question I want an experienced head coach.
 
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Turning Mangiapanese

Turning Mangiapanese

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Yeah, if he wins us a playoff round then it would be pretty bad optics to fire him. Sort of like when the Oilers ditched Krueger for the shiny new thing called Dallas Eakins after one season. I'm not saying Gallant=Eakins, just that it might send some wrong messages in the locker room (especially if Ward is well-liked).

But I still haven't formed a proper opinion of Geoff Ward to be honest, seems like a very cardboard cutout type of guy, at least to the public.
 
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