[Cali Panthers Fan]

To be entirely honest, I've only skimmed this thread and read the posts of the people I normally have a lot of respect for. I completely understand most of the criticisms of GG, and some of them are valid: player usage, line matching, overcomplicated system, not doing enough to build up certain players. But all of those things aren't making or breaking an entire season. More to the point, Gulutzan has shown that when things aren't working over an extended period (more than 2 or 3 games) he changes things up and makes adjustments to all those things above. These adjustments might not be very noticeable, but a lot of the things that the fans scream for, he ends up doing: Move Bennett to wing for a time, play Jankowski at center, drop Brouwer to the 4th line, bench Bartkowski. However, when those things have been done, it hasn't resulted in any better success, so the second guessing of what he's doing right now should probably be at a minimum.

Here's what I see right now. This team is simply struggling with confidence and execution of the game plan (save for a couple players like Gaudreau, Gio, and Smith). All teams go through these lulls in a season. Usually you can see signs of a slump when the team is still winning. We saw this in L.A., where the team probably didn't play well enough to win, but still came away with points. Then we saw the team start to play the right way, but the results weren't there. That's usually how it goes. The team will start to fix the things that were wrong but not have the results to show for it. Then something happens and the results will come if the team sticks with the game plan. I expect this to happen sometime soon.

The one thing they've turned around and stuck with quite well is the defensive zone commitment. They've really cut down on the shots, and the high danger shots especially. Smith is making the saves he's supposed to, and then some. That part of the game has solidified itself when it was shakey early on.

But the offense has really struggled lately. That comes down to a few things that I can see easily:
1) Looking for the perfect play. Instead of firing pucks on net and gaining momentum with all of their possession time, they hold onto the puck (which is also the point of possession game plans) and wait for the absolute perfect shot instead of taking a good shot. It happened so many times last night that I lost count.
2) Not being aggressive and going to the net. This is a trend that happens to all teams at times. Right now, the Flames aren't willing to pay the price to score goals, and thus, they aren't. Crash the net and good things will happen. Tkachuk gets it.
3) Poor transition. They aren't making the quick play because they want to settle the puck down. This comes from having a rough start defensively. If you're more confident in the defensive zone play, you trust that you can make the quick outlet and no bad turnovers will happen. This is purely a factor of confidence in the game plan and the teammates.

Now most of those things are the result of overthinking the game and a lack of confidence. If any fault can be put on Gulutzan, it's that he hasn't managed the mental part of the game as well as he could. This is fair criticism as far as I'm concerned. He went out several times recently and called out his team in the media. It was a risky move on his part, and it seems to have backfired. He needs to take a different tact with them and build up their confidence again.

This seems to be a running theme with Gulutzan. He has struggled to manage the ups and downs of a season emotionally. The end result is a team that runs really hot and really cold. I don't think any of his assistants are good at that part of coaching either, which is why this seems to be a problem with this staff.

But let me say this: We've seen that when Gulutzan gets this team playing the right way and with confidence, they're darn near unbeatable. We KNOW that he can have success with this team. We also know that the 2 biggest deficiencies from last year have been shored up (2nd and 3rd pairing defense, goaltender), so IMO, once this team remembers how to win, they're going to roll over a lot of teams.

This is where the danger of an overreaction move like firing the coach 11 games into the year can be. I saw it last year with the Panthers when they fired Gallant before he had a chance to make adjustments. The end result was the loss of a quality coach, a lost season for a young roster, massive overhauls to the roster, and a general step back overall with the team. Make no mistake, this team is much better over the last season and a bit with Gulutzan. They're struggling right now, and there are things to work on, but I would not fire Gulutzan at this point. Besides which, there aren't a lot of better options for head coach that would fit this roster.

I said it before, that if the Flames finish in the bottom 10 this year, Gulutzan's job is fair game. In the meantime, give him time to make the adjustments necessary. All teams go through bad stretches. It's a marathon, not a sprint.