[Kovaz]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Let's keep in mind the role of the GM here as it pertains to coaching.

No Janko on the opening night roster, Bennett floundering at centre. Tanner Glass, Freddie Hamilton, Versteeg, Jagr, Brouwer.

Treliving basically revamped the entire bottom of the roster over the course of the year, not because he's an amazing proactive GM, but because he had to address critical mistakes made in the makeup of the roster.

Since opening night the Flames have added:

Janko
Hathway
Shore
Stewart
Kulak
Lazar (I include him but understand if some wouldn't)

The Flames have basically shipped out:

Jagr
Glass
Freddie Hamilton
Bartkowski
Versteeg (I know it was injury but I'm suggesting he would've been in the pressbox most nights based on the start of the season).

You can throw Eddie Lack and his .813 save percentage in there as well.

In my opinion, considering the bottom part of the roster has been by far the biggest weakness on the team, Gulutzan has largely turned chicken #### into chicken salad. He's not the best coach in the league but this is NOT a contending roster. That is absolutely nuts to think considering the organization is 2 years removed from finishing 26th in the league.

I can hold both ideas in my head that GG is not a great coach for this roster and that this roster is not a great roster to coach.

Before GG arrived the Flames had made the playoffs only one time in 7 years.

What on earth compelled the management of this team to be as deluded as a fanbase full of homers?

This organization is terrible. Some fans think it's the coaches fault that in a year where the team's best players nearly all have career years that he can't squeeze NHL quality play out of a group of guys who aren't NHLers.

You give this roster to Bruce Boudreau and this team misses the playoffs. You give it to gerard gallant and this team misses the playoffs.

You simply cannot outplay more talented teams over an 82 game schedule if half your roster aren't NHL quality players.

Every team in the league has weaknesses in their lineup outside of the absolute top contenders. Colorado's going to make the playoffs with Blake Comeau and Matt Nieto playing in their top 6. LA is going to make the playoffs despite their entire bottom 6 getting out-shot, out-chanced, and out-scored. San Jose gets outscored when their top players are on the ice. Dallas gets absolutely lit up when Mattias Janmark and Devin Shore are on the ice, and they play the 4th and 5th most minutes on the team.

That's our direct competition, and they're finding a way to win despite having glaring flaws throughout their lineups. But we're going to say our roster can't compete because a couple of our depth players are -5 over an 82 game season? There's no way we can overcome that?

Or are you calling Backlund and Frolik not NHL quality? Because they're the ones who are actually deep in the red this year (-15 for Backlund, -12 for Frolik).

If you need a roster where all 18 skaters are going to outplay the average NHLer to compete, there's something wrong because nobody in the league has that kind of roster.

You can only have so much talent under a salary cap in the best of times and it's on the coach to get the most out of the talent you do have.

Why isn't our best-shooting defenceman playing on our top PP unit when it's built around D taking shots?
Why do we have a D-core built around great puck-moving and skating abilities dumping the puck up the boards and standing at the blueline in the offensive zone?
Why are our statistically worst PKers the first ones over the boards when shorthanded?
Why is a line combo that's -13 on the year playing 80% of their ice time together?

Do you honestly think none of those decisions can have any impact on a team's results? If each of those decisions could be worth a single point in the standings, we're still in the race today.

Every team has flaws, but we shouldn't be plummeting out of the playoffs because our roster isn't perfect.