Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
Under Gulutzan, he allowed these vets to dictate the play. I am going to assume this had a lot to do with the poor starts, and the overall... crapiness... that we witnessed, especially in the last month. Gulutzan SHOULD have been benching vets. Hartley did it, and he got that team to perform at an exceptional level relative to their ability. You don't need to be a hard ass to bench/scratch a player. You just need to identify poor play, lack of energy/focus, etc., especially when it becomes a theme, rather than an isolated shift or game.
So, in my opinion, Gulutzan HAS to go. He didn't show enough leadership there to nip it in the bud before it seemingly became a full-blown disease on this team again (AGAIN - as it was under Keenan and Brent Sutter - Feaster stated as much).
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Lots of great points. One thing to note. Hartley had no problems whatsover to bench their stars to send a message. Gaudreau, Monahan, Bouma late for practice? All 3 benched. Gets Karri Ramo sent to the minors for lack of compete. Directly sends a message to them.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...ticle28704283/
What does the team do? Fire Hartley.
In comes Gulutzan. Who does he bench or scratch? Kulak, Jankowski, Tkachuk within his first 10 games, Sam Bennett. What player was never scratched? Brouwer (and continuously got PP time). what player was never scratched? Brodie. Frolik and Backlund have both been awful on the home stretch, clearly packed it in. What message do you send your younger guys when they get sat, while the vets run the room like a country club? We've seen that on the Flames not too far in the past.
Lindy Ruff had no problem scratching Jason Spezza earlier in the year. Quenville had no problems scratching Patrick Sharp or Seabrook. Good coaches scratch to send a message. Throwing a stick around may make the news, but players understand a message better is they are sitting on their butts and disciplined for lack of effort and it has to be consistent.