Quote:
Originally Posted by Caged Great
Safe.
If the Flames don't figure things out by this time next year, that's a different story.
Regression from Hudler, Wideman, Ramo, Bouma, and Hiller is the entire reason why the Flames are not in the spot San Jose is.
If the Flames address the goaltending and add another scorer or two in the offseason and the Flames are still terrible, then they probably move on from Hartley.
|
I want to believe this is a case of Hartley not getting enough out of his team rather than half of the team regressing.
He's made countless questionable roster and in-game decisions this year. Last season he scratched Wideman 5 games into the season and afterwards he was a different player. This season he's been even worse than the start of last year and hasn't been scratched once.
It's starting to look like Hartley has too much loyalty towards his veteran players. We're a rebuilding team and frankly I don't think Hartley's values and roster decisions align with what this team needed to be doing this season.
I'll cap this rant off by addressing the special teams (something the coaches haven't been able to address all season). Hartley himself mentioned last year that you need good special teams to win games in today's NHL. Then he makes the dumbest PP combinations you could possibly come up with and absolutely head-scratching PK system. It's only now that Wideman is off the PP that it's starting to click. Not to mention going from the least penalized team one year to one of the most penalized teams.