Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
This team needs a head coach that's seen this before and knows what buttons to press. I didn't have any issue with him not bag skating the team as I understand the approach but it didn't work and in hindsight he probably should have bag skated them. I don't get paid to be right on these calls and he does. His management of the goaltenders has been questionable as well. You have Brodie playing on the wrong side and it just seems everything he's doing isn't working out that well. His system looks fundamentally better than Hartley's but the only players that seem able to flourish under it is the bottom six players as the skill players have looked rudderless from the opening face off in October.
It's going to be a difficult offseason for the Flames as on one hand you don't want to fire a head coach after only one season but I'm not sure how they will sell season tickets brining this guy back. Because the fanbase never embraced this hiring in the first place.
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Darryl Sutter?
To be fair, the mistakes he's made shouldn't be life or death for a team that's good enough to perennially make the playoffs.
HOWEVER, we've seen the coach before him get a lot more out of these exact same players, and we've seen their ability to perform before, and push back to tie games before, so it is there. GG just might not be the man to bring it out of them. It's not a slight against what he knows. His system might fundamentally be the way the team needs to go in, but you need someone that can implement a culture of hard work and not allow these lulls in giving a crap to happen. In two games against a team looking to leapfrog them and their provincial rivals, back to back? That
can't happen.
I'd have to think that if they continue to fall off they even contemplate making a bench change before the season is out.
They have an ex-head coach sharing the bench with GG that could be a stop gap. But making the move at least tells the fans that they care enough to not stand idle as another season goes down the drain. It would've been knee-jerk in october, I grant them that. But 50-60 games in without overall improvement from the previous season in a team that should be trending upwards I feel is enough justification to make a move.
Is it not, Mr. Treliving?