Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
Who is slow on this team? Brouwer? That's about it.
Gaudreau (fast) - Monahan (average) - Ferland (fast)
Tkachuk (average - slightly below) - Backlund (fast) Frolik (fast)
Bennett (fast) - Jankowski (fast) - Stewart (average - fast)
Lazar (fast) - Stajan (average - below average) - Brouwer (slow)
Hathaway (fast)
Giordano (fast) - Hamilton (fast)
Brodie (fast) - Hamonic (Fast)
Kulak (fast) - Stone (average - slow)
You may disagree in a matter of shades, but this is fairly accurate. Gaudreau and Bennett might be super fast (especially carrying the puck), but just included under fast.
This is NOT a 'slow' team. They just play slow.
The whole trial and tribulations of Glen Gulutzan comes down to this for me:
Treliving let Hartley go (in part probably because of how tough he was on players - shelf life and all), but in the media his reasoning was this:
"
Look at the roster. Look at the 'fixed' goaltending. Now tell me two things:
Could/would Hartley have been able to take this team to this exact same spot as the current Flames find themselves in now?
They sit 11th in the conference. Go take a look at the actual standings right now - 11th places them EXACTLY at the bottom of the teams that have a chance to make the playoffs, with 73 points. Then there is a large gap with Chicago leading the 'basement' with 62 points.
Now look at the PP and PK.
23rd in PP%.
16th in PK%.
14th in GA.
17th in GF.
16th in ROW wins (Anaheim is the ONLY team ahead of the Flames with less).
11th on shots/GP though, that's decent.
16th in shots against/GP.
So Treliving went and let go a coach (one season removed from winning the Jack Adams, and at the time at least, a fan favorite) because he was too hard on the players (I agree with this), that he felt that Hartley couldn't get more out of this squad, and that the PP and PK numbers were bad.
Well, there is a bit of an improvement on the special teams (compared to that single year anyway), but not something I would call substantial. Gulutzan has a much better squad and, IMO, is NOT pushing this team further than what Hartley would be.
This leads me to believe that Gulutzan is probably on his way out. Treliving might agree with HOW this team plays, but I can't imagine he will retain Gulutzan based on performance.
Now, before any bias enters the equation, let's compare teams.
Which forward group is better from the Hartley era to the Gulutzan era? I have to say LW and Center is MUCH improved in the Gulutzan era, and RW is probably a push (if I have to choose, I choose Gulutzan's era simply because Ferland has matured and become a legitimate scorer on the right side).
Who has better defence? This isn't even close, is it?
Who has better goaltending? Again, not even close.
Now, some people here think that Hartley is a crap coach and couldn't possibly do much with this team, but I think he would have at least been in the same spot as Gulutzan's Flames find themselves now, which is not good enough.
This is my point. If Hartley was let go in large part to performance of the team, then I don't see how Gulutzan survives this season (unless they go on some streak, make the playoffs, and at least take the first series to a 7 game loss).
I don't see an argument any other way right now.
(Plus, I argue that the Pacific Division is WEAKER than in Hartley era, with more crap teams this year).
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