Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
Its all the same thing though.
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Gully was an awful hire from day one - it was apparent in the first 15 games. He never had the respect of the players, was consistently out coached. Nice guy though.
Peters was not genuine; all hat, no cattle - it was apparent from his first press conference and from his time in Carolina. His ex-players had nothing good to say about him from Carolina, but lot of bad whispers. No one on the flames seemed upset to see him gone.
In contrast, the flames look engaged with Ward. They also look structured. So he was getting buy-in. They had a solid playoffs, adjusting for the fact their highest paid player was injured and their second highest paid player didn't play well. I honestly believe Ward is the most complete coach the flames have had since Sutter and a full season with him behind the bench will be good for the franchise. He also seems like a genuinely caring person, which leads to buy-in. He's the kind of coach players want to play hard for.