Quote:
Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!
I think there are vanishingly few coaches who significantly improve their team's performance. The large majority of coaches are in the mushy middle, where they don't have much impact one way or another. And there's a few coaches who are actually a hindrance to their club's performance, but I think that's quite rare.
So I don't agonize over coach selection, as it's not usually a big deal who you choose as long as he's not one of those last kind of coaches.
Gulutzan has absolutely been one of those coaches that hurts his team's performance so far. That's a rare thing, but this is what it looks like.
I'm inclined to give him little to no rope when it comes to playing this out. He's making questionable decisions, those decisions are not working out, the team looks bad visually, they are not improving, and the results are absolutely abysmal.
I've rarely supported a Flames coach being fired, and I've never wanted to see one fired mid-season.
But this is ridiculous. This is exceptional. Gulutzan may indeed be a good coach, but it is clearly not working out here, and it is not working out in a very dramatic and convincing fashion.
If I were GM, I'd be doing the leg work to find a replacement coach ASAP, and I'd be looking to pull the trigger within the next few games unless things dramatically improve.
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Exactly. I'm usually the last person to say "we lost because we got outcoached," and there are so few head coaches who are actually difference-makers.
As bad as last year's team was, this edition is astonishingly horrid. Maybe it's the two losses to Edmonton that make this so unpalatable, but I don't recall seeing these guys look so lost. Usually during a team slump you'll still see some bright spots. Now there are almost none.
And it's the helplessness of cornerstone players that's the most disheartening. Monahan might be playing hurt, so I won't be too critical of him just yet. But if this is supposed to be a development year, it's off to a terrible start. It's hard to fathom what the players are learning when they look clueless.
Who knows, maybe Gulutzan was always meant to be a placeholder until someone with a better record comes along? That wouldn't explain the hiring of Cameron, though. Barring a major turnaround, it'll be crucial for Treliving to take a hard look at what's best for the franchise not just this year, but especially for the duration of the core players' contracts.