[MBates]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

This is so absolutely completely totally wrong.
I do not understand why people keep pushing this fairy tale, Hollywood narrative.
A coach's job is to implement a system, prepare the game plan, and adapt to game situations. Gulutzan may be good/bad at all/any/none of these things - I don't know.
What I do know is that to motivate professional athletes to be ready to play is absolutely no part of his job description.

Honestly, you and PepsiFree are just flat out making up garbage on this topic. It is so phenomenally off I cannot comprehend the confidence with which you declare how right you are when you could not be any more wrong. Let's see if Google can possibly help me make my point.

You may have heard of a coach named Scotty Bowman...he's no Glen Gulutzan...but what was he universally known for as a coach?

Bowman's attention to detail and relentless coaching style kept his players grounded and focused on what mattered most, winning a Stanley Cup.

A master of motivation and mind games, he knew how to get the most out of every player he handled, from superstars to role players.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/scot...-ages-1.896046

I suppose that is just some CBC journalist's opinion though. Maybe you would consider a guy named Ken Dryden and what he said about Bowman:

Here's what Ken Dryden wrote in The Game about how Scotty Bowman handled his Montreal Canadiens roster. This followed a blurb on Guy Lafleur and his unwavering ability to self-motivate...

Bowman feels much the same way about the team's other exceptional players -- about Gainey, Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, Shutt, Cournoyer, Lemaire. He believes that while he can set a constructive tone for the team, and can prepare these players physically and tactically, reminding them from time to time to their annoyance that they are not playing as they can, ultimately what drives them is them.

Not so the marginal player. Young players whose styles are not yet set, older players on the other side of their careers, their egos battered until they're willing to listen: These players are vulnerable and can be manipulated. So Bowman manipulates them--Tremblay, Chartraw, Larouche, Larocque, and others--sometimes cruelly. Benching them, ignoring them for long periods of time, he makes them worry, and makes them wonder why. Then the team hits injuries or a slump and he uncovers them again. He works them hard in practice, watching them, telling the press how hard and well they are working, making them feel they are earning their place in the team. Given a chance, usually at home, they give back an inspired game. A few games later, the inspiration fades, and it all starts again. He holds them by their emotional strings, often for many years, manipulating them until he gets out of them what he thinks is there; then, when he gets it, when feels it is grooved into place, he stops.

https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/47...es-in-playoffs


You may have also heard of a coach named Mike Babcock. I think some people consider him to be pretty good at what he does:

“I get up every morning, and I do the best I can, and work as hard as I can to prepare my team the best I can,” Babcock said.

“Try to love the guys the best I can, try to make them feel good and make them better players. And I go home and love my family and I come here and do it the next day and over time things have worked out good.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/2964880/b...cup-of-hockey/

I could spend hours piling up stuff like this but since you have already 'knowingly' declared that motivating players to be prepared to perform is no part whatsoever of Glen Gulutzan's job description I will simply say this:

Fire whoever drafted his contract and left a fundamentally important part of a winning coach's job description out of its terms.

Oh....WAIT!!!!

Maybe...just maybe...they didn't leave it out of his job description. Some guy named Brad Treleving had this to say when he hired this fella:

His ability to drive players. Ultimately, at the end of the day from my perspective, the most important quality for a coach is to maximize the ability each player has, and the team has.”

And according to Glen Gulutzan, he seems to think having an emotional bank account with his players is a big deal:

“When you build trust and you build relationships, you get something that’s long-lasting and you create an emotional bank account with players,” explained the former Saskatoon Blades captain who worked on a teaching degree before embarking on a minor-pro career as a player.

“When you need to make a withdrawal from that account, and you have a good bank account, you can withdraw from that account. If you need to push or prod or yell or maximize…whatever it is you’re going to do with those players, if you have a good base, if you have a good trust, you can push them a long way and they will play better.

And possibly my favorite quote from the article, so it gets full bold:

And he’ll attempt to be a coach/psychologist/psychiatrist for 23 players

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/f...lutzan-hiring/

But, now that I really think about it, yeah there's no reason to buy into Hollywood fantasies that coaches have any role whatsoever in motivating professional athletes.