Quote:
Originally Posted by Red
This thread may have started in December but these thoughts go back to last year. GG earned his rep over 100 games or so, not just a short losing streak.
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This is weird, because "short losing streaks" are ALL that the Flames have accumulated in their time under Glen Gulutzan. Since he started coaching the Flames they have lost four games-in-a-row TWICE. In total in 127 regular season games. This season, the Flames's longest losing streak has been three games, and that has happened only once. This season, the Flames have not lost more than two regulation games-in-a-row, and have only done so a total of four times. Also worth mentioning here is that in the same period of time that Gulutzan has coached the team the Flames have a record of
50-0-2 when leading after two periods. That is exceptional, and all of this speaks to something that a bewildering number of posters continue to miss:
The Flames are a consistently good team that is showing a steady progression of improvement.
So, I cannot comment on what Gulutzan's reputation is, but I know what it should be: he is proving to be a coach that is helping to improve the team and make them more consistent. I am not sure why he seems to evoke such a strong negative opinion from a number of fans, but I do know that popular opinions are not always correct opinions. With great frequency opinions are driven by strong emotions, and this will often result in faulty conclusions.
There have been plenty of valid criticisms of the coaches for line deployment decisions and special team struggles, but the question here is whether these are enough on their own to advocate for an outright change behind the bench at this stage. I would say "no," and that to expect otherwise despite the number of ways in which Gulutzan has helped to improve the team is completely unreasonable.