Obviously this has been a terrible season. In fact, it may be the worst season I've ever witnessed as a Flames fan. It was fairly obvious from very early in the season that this team was lacking "it" or "swagger" or whatever you want to call it.
They were slow and had no speed to their game, slowly moving the puck up as a 5 man unit. No urgency, no attention to detail, and as a result no luck. It's not surprising their special teams are so bad. You've got to move the puck quickly and play with aggression to have good special teams, Flames do none of that.
Should players be traded? Should the coaching staff be fired? My question is why one or the other? I think it is fairly obvious that both things need to happen.
Under Gulutzan the team has taken steps back mentally, where they collapse at the smallest sign of trouble. Too passive. Too many guys looking to make the perfect play. Most nights it feels like they can't get out of their own way.
But they have no luck this year! Their Corsi is so good! They'll turn in around.
Except they didn't. You make your own luck in this league. We saw that with Hartley. We watched a team that was lost start to find it's way. It played aggressive and gave it's all for 60 minutes for at least a whole 1.5 seasons that culminated in a second round win before the wheels fell off.
I have not seen this type of progression under Gulutzan. This year's team didn't have any luck because they didn't do the things they needed to do to be successful. They didn't earn it.
This isn't a "Hartley shouldn't have gotten fired" post as it was fairly clear that his time had run its course. But for me the worrying part is the Flames needed to find a new voice to get this team to the next level and they ended up with a guy who's had them take several steps back.
In my eyes Gully has to go. I'm sure he's a great guy and a good hockey mind and he and his staff aren't solely to blame for the problems, but their hands also aren't clean either. Bad special teams and player usage are direct results of this coaching staffs inabilities.
Gulutzan can't get this team to where they need to be. It's obvious that while the team didn't like a hardass coach like Hartley, they certainly RESPONDED to a hard ass coach like Hartley.
As for the players, what's to say. They wanted a different type of coach than Hartley and they got it. Then they proceeded to take steps back for the next 2 years. These guys don't show up for starts of games, went on long stretches of both winning and losing. They have defensive lapses you see out of junior kids and crumble at the first sign of adversity.
Players don't get to have a clean slate under a new staff. They don't deserve it. It's time to ship some guys out as a message that this won't be tolerated.
This whole organization needs a dose of urgency and that urgency needs to start at the top with Treliving. That starts by removing the coaching staff and removing a couple core/veteran pieces. Which pieces those are is hard to say. I have some gut feelings but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. Regardless of who Treliving moves he has to get VALUE back. None of this Savard for Zainullan crap. Not a Hall for Larsson trade. You need to get value and the right type of players back.
The other thing I think we need to see is a shift in mentality on veteran players. Far too long has it been OK for veterans to come in, be slow and take time to find their game, only to see younger players get scratched for the same stuff. It's about accountability. We need to stop seeing guys like Glass and Grossman get contracts. We need to stop watching guys like Brouwer and Stajan play like garbage months while "finding their game".
Treliving needs to raise the floor of this team and a new coach needs to instill and 'play well to keep your spot' mentality. Brouwer can't get it going? Shame that he makes 4.5 million. Take a seat in the press box and be ready for your next chance. Brodie making mental error after mental error? Sweet, lets put him upstairs for a game or 2. Guys have lost their focus and that's not acceptable.
It's not that kids don't need to sit, they sometimes do. It's about accountability and progression. How long do you have to wait around for someone to find their game?
With this coaching staff they basically set the lines at the beginning of the season, made very few changes, and waited for the entire season. Just awful tactics and player management and an awful message to send to the players.
I'd rather have kids up here learning the NHL game, kids who might progress over the course of the season, than watch scrubs like Brouwer, Stajan, and Bartkowski meander their way through the season trying to find their game.
Honestly if this team doesn't oust the coaching staff this off-season that's a very worrying sign. I won't sit here and say that I won't watch the team next season because of it (I've been watching this team since '92 and only seen 2 seasons that weren't bad/disappointing) but if it's status quo going into next season, and the first 10 games resemble a lot of what we saw this season, I'll be tapping out even earlier than I did this year.
The good news is with a good summer the Flames could right the ship rather quickly. The bad news is, as a Flames fan, I expect that any move they actually do make will explode spectacularly in their faces.
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