What are your thoughts on Glen Gulutzan's system?

[Erick Estrada]

All coaches employ systems that are somewhat similar. Hartley's was maybe an outlier in today's NHL but key is getting chemistry on lines and full buy-in from the players. If the players don't believe in the coach they aren't going to buy in. That was the undoing of a guy like Playfair. Flames veteran players viewed him as nothing more than Darryl's assistant. Prior to recent success ther were stretches where you could see the system click on this ice but for the first half of the season there were players on this team that IMO weren't fully buying into Gulutzan. Maybe because he wasn't a big name coach and didn't have a previous record of success he couldn't just walk through that door and immediately command respect like a Babcock or Boudreau could. That has changed and right now the team is as cohesive a unit as we have seen in a long time.

[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by Draug

Is it possible that Gulatzan is learning to be a better head coach? I mean, Bowman or Babcock weren't instantly great coaches were they?

Babcock lost in the finals his first NHL season and Bowman lost in the finals his first 3 NHL seasons so yes, yes they were instantly great coaches.


Anyway I think Gulutzans system is a little mean right now. You can't just go around beating teams 5-2 and 5-0. It will motivate them for the next game. Better to take your foot off the gas and cruise to a 3-2 victory. Then the other team can think they were close and didn't get the bounces and they won't try harder next time. Sad!

[GioforPM]

Bump to say... it's pretty good.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Babcock lost in the finals his first NHL season and Bowman lost in the finals his first 3 NHL seasons so yes, yes they were instantly great coaches.


Anyway I think Gulutzans system is a little mean right now. You can't just go around beating teams 5-2 and 5-0. It will motivate them for the next game. Better to take your foot off the gas and cruise to a 3-2 victory. Then the other team can think they were close and didn't get the bounces and they won't try harder next time. Sad!

No kidding! That is amazing. I didn't know. Thanks.

With the shutting down of Montreal and now Pittsburgh, GG's system is looking better and better. Even Wideman was not a liability tonight against the Pens.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Babcock lost in the finals his first NHL season and Bowman lost in the finals his first 3 NHL seasons so yes, yes they were instantly great coaches.


Anyway I think Gulutzans system is a little mean right now. You can't just go around beating teams 5-2 and 5-0. It will motivate them for the next game. Better to take your foot off the gas and cruise to a 3-2 victory. Then the other team can think they were close and didn't get the bounces and they won't try harder next time. Sad!

Well, let's have some perspective here.

Bowman started coaching the Blues in the first year of expansion. The team went 27-31-16 to finish 3rd in the expansion division. They went to the cup finals mainly because they were in a conference with no teams that had a .500 record (someone had to get out of that conference each year).

In 69/70, St Louis won their division (conference, whatever you want to call it), so good on them. But 5 of the 6 teams in the other, original 6 division had a better record.

[Hammertime]

fire gulutzan!

[Heavy Jack]

Hammeredtime

[JerryUnderscore]

This losing streak is unacceptable! [/greentext]

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Babcock lost in the finals his first NHL season and Bowman lost in the finals his first 3 NHL seasons so yes, yes they were instantly great coaches.


Anyway I think Gulutzans system is a little mean right now. You can't just go around beating teams 5-2 and 5-0. It will motivate them for the next game. Better to take your foot off the gas and cruise to a 3-2 victory. Then the other team can think they were close and didn't get the bounces and they won't try harder next time. Sad!

Why not, the Ducks had our number for a long time it didn't matter what the score was. Taking your foot off the gas is how many teams lose by playing down to the other teams level. In the playoffs you don't hold anything back or the series will be over soon. Just because the oilers took their foot off the gas for 10 years doesn't mean this should apply to the Flames.

[shadowlord]

The next 2-3 games against DAL, LA and WSH will be tell us whether the GG and his system were truly responsible for the win streak or not.

If we lose 2 games or more (of the 3) or go on an extended losing streak, then it means our win streak was more a factor of luck and individual player performances. It also means that GG's coaching has minimal impact on the team's fortunes. He can't steer the ship and was just along for the ride.

If the system is effect and truly entrenched in the minds of the players, then they will keep playing it and it will should continue to produce more wins than losses after the BOS setback. Full credit to GG's coaching (and system) is deserved if he quickly turns this around before too many losses mount.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

The next 2-3 games against DAL, LA and WSH will be tell us whether the GG and his system were truly responsible for the win streak or not.

If we lose 2 games or more (of the 3) or go on an extended losing streak, then it means our win streak was more a factor of luck and individual player performances. It also means that GG's coaching has minimal impact on the team's fortunes. He can't steer the ship and was just along for the ride.

If the system is effect and truly entrenched in the minds of the players, then they will keep playing it and it will should continue to produce more wins than losses after the BOS setback. Full credit to GG's coaching (and system) is deserved if he quickly turns this around before too many losses mount.

Everything that can ever be known will be made clear in the next 3 games.

[bax]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

The next 2-3 games against DAL, LA and WSH will be tell us whether the GG and his system were truly responsible for the win streak or not.

If we lose 2 games or more (of the 3) or go on an extended losing streak, then it means our win streak was more a factor of luck and individual player performances. It also means that GG's coaching has minimal impact on the team's fortunes. He can't steer the ship and was just along for the ride.

If the system is effect and truly entrenched in the minds of the players, then they will keep playing it and it will should continue to produce more wins than losses after the BOS setback. Full credit to GG's coaching (and system) is deserved if he quickly turns this around before too many losses mount.

This is one of the strangest comments made in this thread. We can't evaluate the system objectively during wins and losses? 10 wins means nothing but if we lose 2 of the next 3 the systems suck?

News flash guys- no team in the NHL is going to win every game

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

The next 2-3 games against DAL, LA and WSH will be tell us whether the GG and his system were truly responsible for the win streak or not.

If we lose 2 games or more (of the 3) or go on an extended losing streak, then it means our win streak was more a factor of luck and individual player performances. It also means that GG's coaching has minimal impact on the team's fortunes. He can't steer the ship and was just along for the ride.

If the system is effect and truly entrenched in the minds of the players, then they will keep playing it and it will should continue to produce more wins than losses after the BOS setback. Full credit to GG's coaching (and system) is deserved if he quickly turns this around before too many losses mount.

Nonsense.

Fans are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves based on how the team has performed whether they like Gulutzen's system or not. I am confident that he should get full credit because the team has played damn good. The win streak was not a product of "luck" and "individual player performances." It was great hockey.

[smiggy77]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

The next 2-3 games against DAL, LA and WSH will be tell us whether the GG and his system were truly responsible for the win streak or not.

If we lose 2 games or more (of the 3) or go on an extended losing streak, then it means our win streak was more a factor of luck and individual player performances. It also means that GG's coaching has minimal impact on the team's fortunes. He can't steer the ship and was just along for the ride.

If the system is effect and truly entrenched in the minds of the players, then they will keep playing it and it will should continue to produce more wins than losses after the BOS setback. Full credit to GG's coaching (and system) is deserved if he quickly turns this around before too many losses mount.

So what you're saying is the wins are all cuz of luck and the losses are because our coach sucks?

Let me rephrase, what you're saying is that our 39 wins this season is all luck, and us being in a playoff spot is all luck, and the 27 losses is because GG sucks?

It sounds like you're too afraid to eat crow and you're losing all objectivity in your argument.

[Calgary4LIfe]

No team in the NHL goes on a 10 game winning streak simply out of luck.

Yeah, Philly imploded after their win streak, but that doesn't mean that they weren't playing really good hockey. It just means whatever it was went off the rails.

I look back at the streaks under Hartley - Flames were playing solid games in all areas of the ice under that system, but then went off the rails when goaltending became shaky again (coinciding when Ramo went down).

I am of the opinion that as long as a coach implements a decent system that fits a team, and that a team is capable of playing (unlike Mike "no system" Keenan, and Brent "completely wrong system" Sutter), as long as the team sticks to the system they should experience success - as long as there is enough talent on the team.

The Flames are talented and, dare I say, fairly 'deep'. They have been executing the system (as to the best of my knowledge) fairly well, and earned those 10 straight wins. They earned that loss against the Bruins since they experienced shaky goaltending and appeared to deviate from the system (either from not enough effort, or the Bruins simply being able to break down the system making the Flames look like they weren't putting in a full effort - tough to gauge sometimes, especially when it is only one game).

I have been more than critical about Gulutzan, but he definitely has his finger on this team and they are playing well. If they let their foot off the gas, then it becomes guesswork as to why they did so. Rattled? Tired? Gulutzan not making the proper adjustments?

I am really not worried about how the Flames are playing. Maybe not generating enough scoring chances at times, but they are playing sound defensive hockey for the most part. I like how they are playing every other night, I like how they are playing (for the most part) good teams to finish off the season, and I like how they are playing fairly defensive as a whole - that is how teams experience success in the playoffs.

Another loss and I won't be rattled yet in my belief - Dallas got embarrassed last outing, and I am sure they will be playing hard tonight. I believe that Gulutzan's system (whether it is the 'full system' or the simpler version of it) has been working very well, and when it has experienced a breakdown, Elliott has made a timely save (all systems break down every game during moments).

The most important thing to me is that a team is competing hard and sticking to the game plan, deviating only when needed if they are losing and need to trade-off some defence to try and mount a comeback - but then even with some caution. I don't think they will lose 3 or 4 in a row - that is not how they have been playing for the majority of the season, and they seem in the middle of a very well-executed run where the entire team from top to bottom has been playing rather well.

[GioforPM]

shorter shadowlord: I don't like GG and have been waiting for an opportunity to criticize him.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

...Another loss and I won't be rattled yet in my belief - Dallas got embarrassed last outing, and I am sure they will be playing hard tonight...

One small correction: no, Dallas won their most recent game in Vancouver 4-2 last night.

I am sure they will still want to come out hard, but I doubt there are any lingering effects from their disastrous outing in Edmonton.

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

Another loss and I won't be rattled yet in my belief - Dallas got embarrassed last outing, and I am sure they will be playing hard tonight.

They won against Vancouver last night, so hopefully they can pat themselves on the back long enough to get embarrassed by us.

[timbit]

A reprieve.

Continue on Glen.

[smiggy77]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

The next 2-3 games against DAL, LA and WSH will be tell us whether the GG and his system were truly responsible for the win streak or not.

If we lose 2 games or more (of the 3) or go on an extended losing streak, then it means our win streak was more a factor of luck and individual player performances. It also means that GG's coaching has minimal impact on the team's fortunes. He can't steer the ship and was just along for the ride.

If the system is effect and truly entrenched in the minds of the players, then they will keep playing it and it will should continue to produce more wins than losses after the BOS setback. Full credit to GG's coaching (and system) is deserved if he quickly turns this around before too many losses mount.

Sooooo was that a lucky win again?