Quote:
Originally Posted by stone hands
Hartley exciting brand of hockey lasted exactly one and a half miracle seasons on the back of a norris level Brodie and gio and unsustainable 3rd period comebacks
People seem to forget the rest of his tenure, which mainly featured the flames finishing poor enough to draft the likes of Monahan, Bennett and tkachuk around one freak playoff appearance against the actual best possible playoff opponent they could have drawn
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The Monahan draft can't be pinned on him. No Training Camp as a new coach in a lockout shortened season. Full roster overhaul with Kipper, Bouwmeester and Iginla gone by season's end. Even then he got the only Flames play out of JBo that looked like the JBo we thought we were originally getting.
Bennett draft, we went into the season expecting to pick first and he had the team playing exciting competitive in the second half.
playoffs year, speaks for itself. Imagine if Gio was healthy. Gio / Brodie being Norris level was his machination as he gave them a green light to utilize their talent.
Post-playoff year, Brodie missed the first few weeks which put them behind the eightball recordwise especially with Hamilton's slow transition into his system. Clawed back into a playoff spot by December and played exciting hockey including the longest home win streak in franchise history. Were on a 3 game win streak when Ramo went down for good and Hiller cost them the season against an otherwise easy schedule. Became sellers at the deadline (=Dube/Parsons/Phillips) and still finished 11th in goal scoring. Hartley's PK deserves some serious blame but not his overall strategy. Even the possession argument a bit overstated as they were a +50% corsi team as the season wound down (post Russell trade).