Quote:
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.
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I agree with this (well, mostly, I don't think Versteeg would have been in the press box). When it comes down to it, talented rosters typically make the playoffs and have positive goal differentials. We don't have enough impact players on the roster, plain and simple. We need more players who can put the puck in the net consistently.
I think the majority of fans overestimate the impact of coaching and underestimate the impact of the actual roster. As you mentioned, our players for the most part all played up to, or exceeded their potential. Where were the rest of the goals supposed to come from? I don't believe that GG is the problem - or maybe a better way of putting it is, I don't think we know if GG is a good coach or not because our roster isn't good enough to be a contender, even with a Babcock calibre coach... it likely wouldn't make a difference.
We constantly outshoot the opponents, yet we're plagued by poor shooting %. Well, IMO the most likely reason is because we have ####ty shooters. Outside of Monahan, Gaudreau, Ferland (1st half), and Tkachuk, all of whom are having great years statistically, who are we expecting to score? Backlund occasionally? Certainly it is not coming from Lazar, Stajan, Frolik, Brouwer or Hathway (no amount of coaching would change that)... Bennett and Janko have potential, but are still trying to put it together. Add another 20 goal scorer to this roster and we'd likely be comfortably in a playoff spot.