What is nice to see on top of this is that many posters wished Brent Sutter would have been around for the rebuild. I can't imagine him doing a better job than Hartley at this point. Backlund had alluded to how he changed his game because of his past coaching in the NHL, and how he has been changing his game back to what it used to be.
He won't let other teams push the Flames around (Hi Vancouver), but he also won't run up the score when games become ugly (Hi Edmonton - could have really broken that record easily).
He yells on the bench and is a hard-ass when he needs to be, but he seems to just be a teacher.
Above all, what we haven't seen from a Flames' coach since Darryl (maybe Playfair): A system that is actually designed for the team!
Keenan in his tenure basically had no system. "You guys get paid the big bucks, so you will get the ice-time to do your thing. Just go out there and do what comes naturally."
Brent Sutter tried to force-fit a system onto the Flames. "Dump that puck in the corner. Aggressively forecheck and get it back. Cycle cycle cycle!" Flames were the smallest (or was it 2nd smallest?) team in the NHL, and amongst the oldest. Cycling should NOT be the 'go-to' choice for small teams, nor should it be "Zone exits down the boards only". It was repeated as mantra that the team couldn't score off the rush - but that is exactly what they did in their little 'runs' every year it seemed.
Hartley has a very entertaining style of play as a system. I really had my doubts that they could pull it off in an entire season. Skaters have to skate much more. Forwards have the freedom to generate offence how they see fit - off the rush, dump-ins if you can't carry the puck over, different zone-entry stats, up the middle and away from the boards is fine - as long as there are guys covering, better skate like crazy on the backcheck!
I didn't think they could keep up this level of effort in all 3 zones. I wondered if he would lose the room, or if it was simply too much skating. He preached fitness, and he keeps the shifts very short. Flames are not looking like they are running out of gas late in the 3rd periods, or this late into the season. In fact, I think it is a much easier system to keep consistent for the season than a grinding game.
Thank you Hartley, for not only preventing the Flames from becoming an embarrassment this year, but also to give us an entertaining product and a team that is easy to like, respected and admired.
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