Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
I know I'm a broken record, but as I've said before- if I didn't know better, I would swear Sutter was purposely sabotaging the season to undermine Treliving and make him look bad. Was he trying to take his job? I dunno, but consider:
|
I don't mind giving Sutter credit for making the Flames a miserable place to play but I want to push back on some of those points.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
He changed the teams whole identity/style/system defensively (man-on-man) and offensively (high volume of shots), because he said we lacked true offensive talent.
|
He used the same system we had the year before. The same system most of the team already knew, and the one that gave the team success the year before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
He said we lacked true offensive talent. This, after we aquired a player who set a record for assists by a LW, and a C who was coming off a career season.
|
Sutter prides himself on pushing the right buttons. He was saying the same things when we had Gaudreau, and Tkachuk every time we would go against McDavid, Draisaitl, or any other elite forward. We don't have the firepower we're the underdog etc. That's how he tries to motivate his teams. He only started calling Gaudreau and Tkachuk elite after they left!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
When you're struggling to find offense, who better to press in to top-6 duty than Milan Lucic for long stretches
|
Lucic was far from the first experiment Sutter tried with Hubereau. However when the big man was put with Huberdeau they managed to score a couple of goals 5 on 5. I agree that Lucic was kept there for way too long.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Dan Vladar is playing too well- better play Markstrom, who is sucking, for the next 3 weeks
|
Let's look at the history of Sutter and his goalies. He often has a clear number 1 like Kipper or Quick. He often played those guys a ton. When they had a bad stretch he let them play out of it. Vladar was winning some games, but he was still a .900 goalie at best. If we made it to the dance we needed Markstrom to be competitive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Valimaki
|
Valimaki played himself off the team. He started pouting when he outperformed Z, yet Z was still given a roster spot after Valimaki played 5-10 games with Gudbranson. The lack of injuries that year mostly made Valimaki a healthy scratch. When he was sent to the AHL, he was their 3rd or 4th best D-men behind the likes of Mackey, and DeSimone. We all saw him in training camp that year, and he looked lost defensively.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
No need to practice 3-on-3, we're already terrible enough in OT. Cost us the season.
|
No argument here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Dube is on too much of a roll. He needs to play 4th line for a while.
|
That's the way Sutter has been operating all season. He had pairs of forwards Lindholm - Toffoli, Backlund - Coleman, Huberdeau - Kadri. As soon as a line started becoming stale, he switched a winger. That's why we had Ruzicka play great with Lindholm - Toffoli, then went back to Dube. Every winger played with them for a spell.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Season is on the line, let's put Nick Ritchie in the shootout.
|
I don't know why Ritchie was in the shootout. If the team had practiced it then it would be easy to explain, but here I have no idea. That's one of those desicions that if it works out great, but if it doesn't it makes you look really bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Anything I'm forgetting?
|
Playing Huberdeau on RW, while he wasn't comfortable there. It worked great with Tkachuk though, and that's a part of the reason it was tried with Huberdaeu. Also the fact that we clearly lacked players on RW.