Quote:
Originally Posted by Infinit47
This is where we disagree. I don't expect Gulutzan to mask their problems, I expect him to foster growth of their strengths AND try to mitigate problems from their weaknesses. Simple positive moves like Hamilton to the first PP were very beneficial and took forever to be tried. Brodie struggles moving from left D to right D, but Gulutzan continues to expose that weakness instead of foster the strength Brodie showed playing on he right side. Utilizing Troy Brower on the PP exposes a weakness, instead of fostering the strength of a player like Tkachuk. How long did it take Gulutzan to put Tkachuk on the first unit PP? How the heck is Brouwer still anywhere near our pp?
Further, I don't think showing a bad season from Babcock, during a rebuild year where his goal was not to win, but to foster proper habits in players, proves anything. He has won everywhere he has been. He is a good coach and affects the quality of his team's play.
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Great take and well articulated. As was the post you responded to. In my view, the fundamental disconnect for Flames fans is that they (we) think there is unharnessed talent here. And that the coaching staff is the reason it hasn’t been tapped into.
I agree that a better coach would get more out of this squad. But the delta is marginal IMO. The real issue is both a lack of talent and overvaluing the talent we currently have. Exhibit A: the defence. Gio. Hamilton in spurts. Then a whack of mediocrity. Brodie is a liability. Pains me to say it, but he is. Hamonic is a decent 2nd pairing d man that we way overpaid for.
Point is that this team is just not deep. The bottom six is not playoff caliber. Not even close, really. There are huge holes on this team that would handicap any coach. Fact is that Smith held this house of cards together all year. He goes down and the wheels fall off.
Is there better coaching out there? For sure. Is coaching the reason this team looks like a pretender? Nope. The issues on this team are organizational.