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Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache
I don’t follow. Sutter wanted to start in March instead of January so they signed Ward to a 2 year deal?
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The Ward firing and the Sutter hiring is still puzzling me. I think Tre definitely trusted Ward to do the job and he would re-evaluate his coaching status up to the end of this season at least or up to a year and half into Ward's contract. But the firing 3 months in after getting him to sign a contract is just bad faith by Tre, IMO. There must've been something to it other than the team having a bad stretch that probably got Ward fired. The team was firing on all cylinders coming out of the gate in January. The only thing I can think off is after the announcement of Bennett demanding a trade. Ward, like all coaches before him, tried to put Bennett with all sorts of line combos. Nothing worked and with him taking stupid penalties or just not being effective, the coaches have no other means than to have him as a healthy scratch at times or on 4th lines. The final game where the Flames actually won that game, Bennett was a healthy scratch even though he was in prior to that. My thinking is, there is a disagreement with Ward and Tre in regards to Bennett. Ward was reluctant to put Bennett ahead of the team. So, after Bennett's agent announced that his player wanted a trade, Tre probably put pressure on Ward to try and showboat Bennett. Ward did that for a few games, but then Bennett found his way back down to the 4th lines again. To me, with Ward's last game and he had Bennett as a healthy scratch. That got me wondering immediately after it was announced later that night that Ward is fired and Sutter signed a 3 year deal as the head coach of the Flames. Ward's firing was not as immediate as everyone thinks and he likely knew his end date as Tre probably communicated a few days earlier that he's going with Sutter. I really can't see Tre being impatient with a coach he just signed. If that's the case, he'll fire Sutter by the end of the season if Sutter can pull this team together any better than what Ward and what previous coaches have done.