Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
I questioned the team’s work ethic and effort under Hartley in both his first and last year.
I’m not an analytics guy, but it was pretty obvious both at the time and in hindsight that 2014-15 was a combination of luck, out of nowhere career years from a couple vets like Hudler and Wideman, good young players hitting an early stride (and the league not figuring out Johnny yet) and some really funky goaltending where neither Hiller nor Ramo were consistently good, but each had good stretches when the other sucked.
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In Hartley's last year here, the Flames were still tenth in scoring.
Of course they were going to regress
Of course Hartley wasn't the best coach in the league
But he had elements of competency that were observable. I don't think we beat the Canucks in 2015 with Ward, Peters, or Gulutzan behind the bench, even with all fortune that you described. Hartley outcoached Desjardins in that series, simple as that. And then, yes, he got outtalented by the Ducks, there's no denying that, but it's not as if he was making idiotic decisions to shoot this team in the foot. But in each of the other three coach's playoff series (actual playoffs, not "vs a 9th seed missing their top center) our coaches have been thoroughly outcoached.
Not outtalented. Just out x's and o's'd (or in Gulutzan's case, just an idiotic loyalty to that Bartkowski pair)
That's the frustration.
That a coach as mediocre as Hartley is the only coach we've had who can hang in there and still play chess with the other team's mediocre coach.