Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
LOL we don't need any more upset posters. I'm sure I'm not the only disgruntled fan that doesn't want all fans getting sucked in the misery. Balance is good! I feel pretty beat down by this organization but that's just me. I don't expect you to understand what's going on in my head. I can't help that my brain is telling me that it's seen this song and dance before from this team and the ending is always the same and I can't fake optimism. I don't think the players view Ward as the enemy but let's not discount how he got the job last season. To the players he was a great change of pace because he wasn't Bill Peters. That was enough to get some early returns that lifted the team's record high enough that when their play started to trend down they were still in position to make the playoffs. To me the team was starting to slide into the win one, lose one, win two, lose two trend last January and that was more telling of what the team was trending to under Ward. Also Ward was just the interim head coach last season so house money for him as he really had no idea what the future held for him. Now it's Ward's team and he now has to deal with the pressure of knowing the clock is ticking on his tenure. Also it's not like Flames fans weren't scratching our heads last season about some of Ward's decision making. I'm sure players question these decisions as well and it doesn't take long for locker rooms to lose confidence in a coach if they feel they aren't being put in a situation to succeed. In fact this Flames team is no stranger to tuning out their head coach in general.
You can blame the coach, blame the players, or both. I blame the GM because he's the architect. He keeps hiring head coaches that his team is tuning out. He keeps bringing this same core of player back year after year that is tuning out his coaches. Either he cannot accept that this core of players is not working, is hell bent on proving it can, or is simply oblivious to what's transpired in front of him. Either way he's pretty well wasted the prime years of the core of this team he inherited and I don't trust him to be the guy to tear it down given all his missteps in personnel and evaluation of head coaches. I feel Brad Treliving has a future in this league but it's as an assistant GM where he can do all the legwork for a GM that can make better final evaluations on player and coaches.
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It's exactly how I feel.
I am not worried about them missing them playoffs. I am worried about what they will look like when they get there.