[Calgary4LIfe]

Feel bad for Gulutzan - he was a good human being, and regardless of the on-ice performance, I feel bad to see him fired. This is a tough business, and often a humiliating business as nobody enjoys getting fired, especially in public like this. On the flip-side, he was very well compensated and hopefully this adds to his resume and helps him grow professionally, as most newer coaches fail before they succeed, and even experienced coaches fail and are fired. At any rate, good luck to him. I also hope that some of the stuff that he brought to the organization will be helpful in the future, and that individual players learned something under him that they can apply in future years.

With that being said, this was an important decision that probably needed to be made for this team to take a step forward. The team was stagnating. They did not have many significant injuries this year, spent future assets to help propel themselves into the playoffs, and the expectations at the start of the season was that this was going to be a 100 point team. When expectations fall this short, changes absolutely must be made, especially when factoring-in the lack of a built-in excuse (injuries).

Will be interesting to see how quickly the Flames hire someone, and who that may be. Treliving's stopwatch is moving faster now with his second coach firing, and he probably needs to make this next one work. Will be interesting to see where he goes, and how much the owners are willing to pony up as well.

Expensive and big name coach? Relatively new blood again? A more analytical coach once more in the mold of Gulutzan, or in a different direction?

The excitement of this off-season just kicked off today.