Quote:
Originally Posted by Daradon
Don't mind EE. He's just doing his backslide right now. Much like the national media and the Oilers the past few years.
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LOL backslide? Unlike a lot of posters that make up their minds about a player or coach and ever give them any credit I am perfectly fine giving out credit when it is deserved. Hartley has done a pretty good job this season for the most part and deserves credit for getting the team to buy in to being a hard working team. Since when was being humble ever looked at as some sort of weakness?
He did do a terrible job last season which can be attributed to a few things such as taking a season to get acclimated back to the NHL after being out of the league for several years and having to deal with the same veterans that tuned out the past coaches and played their own way. He's had the benefit of a clean slate roster with a new captain that is a better fit for this team but he's also done a very good job installing the hard work mentality that's been missing since Darryl Sutter was the head coach. That said it's easier to perform under low expectations as nobody including the organization and fans expected a playoff team and a lot of us (myself included) expected to be picking top 2 in the draft. There will be slightly higher expectations next season and it will be interesting to see how he handles things if the work ethic slips and the team regresses which is very possible given that teams in the Flames situation are never a lock to improve year after year. Throw in the fact he's in the last year of his deal next season and the inherited head coach of a new GM I'm not going to hitch my hopes that things are all good going forward and that he's set as the long term coach of this team. Professional sports is a year to year thing and you are only as good as your last season.
Season's been better than expected and I'm perfectly fine "backsliding"
as I'm all about the team being better than feeding my ego and hoping for things to be worse just to say I was right. As for the title of this thread I think Bob Hartley has is the right coach for this team today and has earned the right to finish out his contract next season. After that all bets are off and not because I don't like him or anything but a lot can change from season to season with a rebuilding team and there are circumstances outside of his control that may play against him.