Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire
There's no doubt in my mind there was a disconnect between Treliving, Hartley and Ward. Whether Ward outwardly refused to streamline the systems, I don't know. Regardless, I think that's the primary reason he was canned.
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What stood out to me in Ward's final season is to start the year they were playing Hartley's more open system and the team was so terrible defensively. I rarely recall a goaltender being hung out to dry as often as Berra was. Then the team was apart of that brutal massacre in Texas in Broissoit's first AHL start that was almost bad enough to have inspired all the Texas Chainsaw movies. Soon after that the Flames recalled Berra and over that time period Ward seemed to tighten up the defensive play significantly.
This is purely speculation on my part but Ward seemed to me that he was a guy that hated defensive lapses. Calgary's system being played in Abbotsford was yielding terrible defensive play.