Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
What is your point? That one rookie head coach managed an impressive start and never looked back? Did you completely ignore the handful of names that I highlighted in my post? Look again:
Mike Babcock: 5 wins in 16 games (39 years old)
Ken Hitchcock: 6 wins in 24 games (44 years old)
Dave Tippett: 6 wins in 16 games (41 years old)
Lindy Ruff: 5 wins in 16 games (37 years old)
I didn't go through even a third of Joji's list, but the fact that most of the coaches I looked at struggled through their first 20 NHL games suggests to me that Gulutzen's record belongs in the same context, especially in the light of how young so many of the core players on his roster are.
My point here is that it is far too early to be drawing conclusions about how good or poor a NHL coach he might be. The problem here is that not every NHL coach follows the same path to success, and it seems that with some consistency they tend to struggle in the early-going of a season.
After 16 games, no, it absolutely does not. I suppose your argument holds in the event that there is an urgency for this Flames roster to win and play in the playoffs this season, but I don't believe that to be the case in actual fact.
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What difference does it make to us if GG becomes a good coach when he is 50? You will have wasted and entire generation of young core while he learns to be a coach. The point remains that calgary should go (have gone) with an older more experienced coach and the results would have spoken for themselves by now.