Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
But don't you look to what they're doing and ask yourself if that's what they're being told to do, or are you looking at players making mistakes?
I know I do.
If the powerplay featured three guys standing in front of the net trying to screen at the same time I'd be all over the coaching staff for having a ridiculous system.
Nobody coaches to turn over the puck. Nobody coaches to take stupid penalties.
Skill players aren't making skilled plays, and those said skill plays are the part of the game that isn't coached, it's feel, read and guts.
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Hockey is a game of mistakes and also a game of instincts. I believe some coaches can over-focus on systems at the expense of the natural intuitions of the players that as you say, feel and read the game. Right now it looks like that read and feel has been destroyed by overthinking, over strategizing. Some players can take that well (the bottom lines have), other players don't. We saw the exact same thing in the Brent Sutter era.
All I know is you need your best players firing on all cylinders, and right now they all seem stifled. The Flames were a fast and offensively gifted team when they had their most recent success and it seems like they are being tuned in completely different direction that our best players aren't very well suited for. I'm not saying they should play all out river hockey but its up to Gulutzan to figure out how to get the best of all his players, not just the grinders.