Wow, Wow, Wow. Regardless of if you wanted this or not, can anyone say they weren't completely caught off guard by this move today? Crazy! I certainly expected in a contract year that Hartley would have gotten the first 2 months of the season to seal his fate moving forward. I wouldn't have been shocked at that time if he wasn't the guy, but very surprised it happened in the off season, and very surprised when in the offseason it happened.
I wasn't sold on the Hartley hire when he was brought in, but you can put me in the camp of of folks (if they exist) that was pleasantly surprised with how well he did. I thought he did a good job with a young team and I enjoyed the style we saw on the ice for the most part. I will also say, that I wasn't still convinced he was the right coach to lead us to the cup when we become a contender, but who knows.
As for the reasons why, I thought the Fan guys and Duha had a decent conversation surfacing the potential reasons a few mins ago. Maybe bad exit interviews from players, maybe Superbowl situation showing he lost the room, Boudreau now available, not playing our fringe young players enough.......
One thing that I completely agreed with Duha on, is that the biggest issue with our season last year was goaltending, and he didn't really think you could blame Hartley for that. He didn't create the 3 headed goalie situation, and I don't buy that coaches impact goalie play that much, but who knows.
As for what to expect next, I find the timing to be the most telling. For almost all of the reasons possible to surface, even as simple as just not happy with performance, I think those decisions could have been made sooner after the season was done. I might be reading into it way too much, Treliving and the Flames would not take a decision like this lightly (which is good) so maybe it just takes time to evaluate. But part of me feels like sometimes what seems obvious is. To me, this looks like they weren't going to do this unless someone they prefer became available (and potentially showed strong interest in the team), and that a better option may have presented it's self. That would mean Boudreau I would guess. I'm not saying I'm for or against that, I'm just saying that's what it looks like to me.
One thing I will say is that it's rare, even with coaches or GMs that I like, that they get let go before I'm sitting around saying "well we need to change up the coach or the GM, etc...." This move certainly hits the pro-active button, in that the Flames IMO shouldn't have felt desperate to make a change, which is often good, making decisions when you aren't desperate.
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