All coaches employ systems that are somewhat similar. Hartley's was maybe an outlier in today's NHL but key is getting chemistry on lines and full buy-in from the players. If the players don't believe in the coach they aren't going to buy in. That was the undoing of a guy like Playfair. Flames veteran players viewed him as nothing more than Darryl's assistant. Prior to recent success ther were stretches where you could see the system click on this ice but for the first half of the season there were players on this team that IMO weren't fully buying into Gulutzan. Maybe because he wasn't a big name coach and didn't have a previous record of success he couldn't just walk through that door and immediately command respect like a Babcock or Boudreau could. That has changed and right now the team is as cohesive a unit as we have seen in a long time.
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