Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I am not blaming the coaching. The flames roster is absolute garbage and is a last place team on paper. This was probably the worst game of the season and it was game 19.
It is easy for the opposition to be Calgary. We caught teams early with the strong work ethic but if the opposition comes to work the flames are in tough to win
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This Flames team was going to finish at the bottom of the standings regardless of the coach but it's important going forward that players games are improving and that the losing doesn't become a culture. I tend to look at Hartley's record with a Flames team last season that was supposed to challenge for a playoff spot. They loaded up with Wideman and Hudler and Hartley bombed as the team never looked good at any time of the shortened schedule. Defensively it was the worst Flames team I have ever seen. So we have seen him fail miserably with a team that was aimed at making the playoffs and now the rebuilding team under him after a good start has started taking water, defensively at the bottom of the league again. He's playing mind games with young players all while giving underperforming veteran players free rides. His methodology of working through tough stretches seems to be more about punishing certain players instead of trying to work hard on improving team defense and working with guys that are having a tough time. You could see when they lost a few games after the quick start that instead of trying to keep things together and working with players to get though any issues he immediately began sending players to the press box and rotating the 3rd defensive pairing and 4th line nearly every night. That's not good coaching IMO.
There's also the distinct whiff of Keenan in how he seems to have his guys and guys that aren't his guys are going to be whipping boys. Seems the same players are getting singled out for poor overall team efforts while other players can play like trash and never see consequences. On what team in the NHL is Brian McGratton a full time player? Come on Bob get it together man! Maybe that can work with a top team full of talent but I'm not sure that's the approach you take when you are trying to rebuild and bring young players along with this yo-yo approach as it doesn't build confidence.