Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
You mean exactly what Hartley was doing?
System aside, he just looks so meek behind the bench. He doesn't look very confident and that probably doesn't instill confidence. Hartley for all his faults always looked the part at least.
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Actually, you may disagree with Hartley's system, but it was tailor-made for Calgary.
Brent Sutter forced everything along the boards, and forced the team to cycle in the offensive zone as a means to create offence. In the defensive zone, they did pressure a lot more, but when they got possession of the puck, the defencemen had to move the puck up along the boards. Nothing was done up the middle.
Hartley's system used the middle of the ice much more. He actually wanted the play to come off the board. Makes sense - Flames were undersized team (and an old, undersized team when he took over, to make matters worse).
Hartley's system took advantage of an undersized forward unit with very mobile and offensive-minded defencemen. Forwards were supposed to skate back hard and come back deep on defence (something that happened regularly I thought the year they made the playoffs, not as much last season) which is the whole 'you have to be very fit' and 'our training camps are really hard' approach. The general notion was that they would collapse around the net and block shots, and wait for possession, and then create offence off the rush either with break-outs or stretch-passes.
Now - as Oil Stain stated previously - I couldn't tell you what the specifics was.
I do not know what Gulutzan's system that he wants to implement is or not, much less figure out if it is fit for the Flames or not. Brent Sutter's was not by what I saw. Hartley's was a system that 'fit' the team much more, though it left something to be desired defensively.
From what I have heard, it is only tidbits of what the system is:
1) Doesn't want to give up the blue-line as easily - wants to make zone entries much more difficult (it was seemingly working for long stretches in one of the Edmonton games, and in the Vancouver game.
2) Pressure the puck carrier in the defensive zone more. That seemed to be the case.
3) He has stated that shot-blocking is a last resort. They will still use it, but only when everything else falls apart.
4) He is most obviously utilizing the stretch pass still. No surprise - Vancouver often used it as well.
That is all I can really tell so far. Sometimes I think the Flames are running something, and then it disappears. I don't know if the Flames are really just figuring out how to implement the system, if the players are having difficult maintaining it under pressure, etc. It is always difficult to figure out systems unless (like Oil Stain pointed out) that you are a high-level coach yourself. All I can see is some tendencies and patterns, and of course pick up on things from the players and the coaching staff during interviews.
As far as I could tell, Hartley's system was mostly built around the Flames' strengths (skating, puck-moving defencemen) and tried to avoid the weaknesses (cycling, board work).
I have no idea yet what Gulutzan's system is designed around, other than 'puck possession' (which means different things to different people - like the Oilers who just tried to shoot a lot to increase the CORSI, never mind that they would lose possession with low-percentage shots). Once the Flames are playing regularly, then we can probably dissect it more.