[News] UPD: Geoff Ward officially named the franchise's 20th head coach (2 year deal)

[Gaudreau is a Ninja]

Originally Posted by indes

Classic Flames;

If it's broke, keep using it, it'll fix itself.

Except it’s not the coach that’s broken, good signing. It all depends on what Tre is a able to do with the players (trades, free agents)

[squiggs96]

I hate this a lot. I hope to be proven wrong, but I feel this decision will cost Ward and Trelving their jobs, and many fans their appetite to watch Flames hockey. I think the only way I could hate this more is if they announced Gulutzan was coming back to be an assistant coach.

On a side note, how is Brent Sutter considered a top tier coach? He coached in NJ for two years and lost in the first round both years. He also took over a NJ team that had just finished first in its division the last two years. In the 12 seasons prior to Brent coaching NJ, the Devils won three Stanley Cups and lost in the final of another. They finished first in their division seven times and only missed the playoffs the year after the won the Cup in 1995. In the previous 10 years the Devils averaged 46 wins. Brent comes in at gets the average 46 in his first year. The year after he left NJ they win the division with 48 games and lose in the first round. Two years later they are in the Cup final. I don't see anything Brent did in NJ that would make him a top tier or elite coach at the NHL level. He took over a great team and kept them at the same level they were at in the regular season before he got there. He had no playoff success. Even the two years before he arrived they won the first round each year.

Calgary had made the playoffs in every non locked out season from 2003-2009. Brent shows up and they miss the playoffs for three straight years, playing dreadfully boring hockey. He has not coached again in the NHL. Nothing he did in Calgary makes him a top tier coach.


The last top tier coach we had was Darryl. I wish he was going to be the 2020-21 coach. He's a guy that can coach in any era and will adapt the team's style to what is successful.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by nik-

But so what? I dunno, I'd prefer we be good. Is that not the point here? Or is the point just pretending we should trust the decision making process of an organization with basically no track record of success in three decades? Is there any other segment of someone's life where they would exhibit the same behaviour? Just implicitly believing that because someone made the decision, even though that person has consistently made that decision poorly previously, that it's the right choice?

It's just so odd.

I prefer we be good, too. I just have no idea if this was the best option actually available to us or not, and what Ward, who has been the head coach for a whopping 52 games, is going to be like for the next 164+

His takeover during the regular season seemed to go well, the Flames had some great games in the playoffs/qualifiers, and some dismal ones. Who honestly knows what next year looks like?

This is not like acquiring a player who has been terrible for multiple seasons in a row and expecting them to blossom with a change of scenery. We just have to wait and see what happens. I'd prefer to hope it turns out well, I guess.

[indes]

Originally Posted by Gaudreau is a Ninja

Except it’s not the coach that’s broken, good signing. It all depends on what Tre is a able to do with the players (trades, free agents)

Our inability to gain the zone or breakout in a quick transition is most certainly on Ward. Gio, Brodie, Hanifin, Backlund, Gaudreau, Lindholm;. All of these guys have excelled at quick transition breakouts. We now use a dump and chase 90% of the time, do you think Johnny and Mangi want to chase the pucks in the corner?

[Stanley]

After 483 posts still waiting for player accountability...

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by New Era

Don't like this decision except for it means the end to Treliving very soon. Don't see Ward as a very good coach and Treliving will have to make significant change in the make up of the team for a Ward coached team to be competitive. That's going to mean Treliving is pushing in all his chips and burning any goodwill he had accrued. The next firing will be Treliving.

I'm already feeling pessimistic about his replacement.

The only way things will change with this franchise is if there is a top-down philosophical shift in terms of how they hire leadership.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Stanley

After 483 posts still waiting for player accountability...

Lol enter literally any thread on these damn boards, you are blind if you are not seeing "player accountability." Or willfully trolling/ seeking a reaction.

People have been clamouring to trade Gaudreau, Monahan, Giordano... If that isn't a repudiation of the players of the core of the team and player accountability i dont know what is.

[bax]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Peters' roster underperformed. yes, they had a hot start, but after the all star break they were essentially playing like a bubble team, and you can't blame matchups in the playoffs for how easy they made it for the Avs. Their systems collapsed and gave the Avs players (not just Mackinnon, but literally all their forwards) an easy entry into the zone, and Peters got outcoached significantly by Bednar. They were a #1 seed that lost in five games to a #8 seed, that's the definition of underperforming. This carried on into this season, where Peters spun his wheels and would have had to have been fired for team performance even without the personal stuff.

I'm not sure how you can look at that roster and think that 107 points is underachieving. What did you expect? 120 points and a Stanley Cup?

In hindsight the Avs were a terrible match up. Up and coming team that played playoff hockey for 2 months just to get in. That second half they made the transition from a good team to a cup contending team as evidenced from the past season. Getting the Avs in the playoffs was not a great prize from finishing first in the west.

You can't write off a 107 point season because of a "hot start". That hot start was over 60% of the season. They finished with the second best record in the entire league. That is an over achievement given the roster we had. Even after the All Star break the Flames still went 17-12-2. Not elite, but above average. All teams go through highs and lows.

The Flames had a pedestrian start to the 19-20 season, but I don't think Peter's job was ever in danger.

[Flash Walken]

Mike Keenan made the playoffs with 94 points and Brent Sutter missed the playoffs with 94.

Keenan good coach, Sutter bad.

Probably had nothing to do with replacing Mike Cammalleri with Nigel Dawes

[Stanley]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Lol enter literally any thread on these damn boards, you are blind if you are not seeing "player accountability." Or willfully trolling/ seeking a reaction.

People have been clamouring to trade Gaudreau, Monahan, Giordano... If that isn't a repudiation of the players of the core of the team and player accountability i dont know what is.

Clearly I'm referring to this thread in particular...and I couldn't care less about a "reaction" lol
I would have liked a new high profile coach too but the level of hate for Ward is crazy imo considering he got the players playing as a team again and better defensively.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I’m not a fan of gate keeping but with some of the vitriol I’m reading in a surprising number of posts should mean you have to retire as a flames fan if Ward/BT/Flames succeed.

Saying Flames are cheap, an embarrassment, content with mediocrity, hard to cheer for etc should be a self ban if proven wrong. Not that it would matter I think. He’s already a failure no matter what happens.

Being disappointed we didn’t get your desired coach is one thing. Proclaiming the organization a failure because of that and based on some imaginary organizational dedication to mediocrity with a side of purposefully screwing the fans as some weird spiteful motivation is just plain weird.

[camm13]

yet again, NHL coaches with experience and winning available. And we sign Ward.

[Gaudreau is a Ninja]

Originally Posted by indes

Our inability to gain the zone or breakout in a quick transition is most certainly on Ward. Gio, Brodie, Hanifin, Backlund, Gaudreau, Lindholm;. All of these guys have excelled at quick transition breakouts. We now use a dump and chase 90% of the time, do you think Johnny and Mangi want to chase the pucks in the corner?

Yep it’s the coach’s fault AGAIN, fire him(a Stanley cup winner) and hire yet another coach

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I’m neither here nor there with Ward, he’s not terrible but would have been fine if a better coach was available and wanted to coach in Calgary.

My bigger concern is what is Treliving going to do with the roster? It is not a great team, clearly not a contender. The coach won’t matter if the talent on the roster is flailing around in mediocrity. Treliving has his work cut out to direct this team to success. Much bigger concern for me than the coach.

[Roof-Daddy]

I want to be upset, but there just isn't enough information available to us (IMO) to form a valid opinion that isn't based almost entirely on speculation and emotion.

Maybe they reached out to Laviolette, and he wasn't interested.

Maybe the same with Gallant, or maybe there are valid reasons for avoiding a guy that despite having plenty of success in his last two stops was still unceremoniously dumped to the curb relatively quickly.

I don't know. For once I was hoping to see a proven NHL coach with a long track record of winning take the wheel for the Flames, but it's not to be this time.

Like I said, just crossing my fingers and hoping this works out.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by bax

I'm not sure how you can look at that roster and think that 107 points is underachieving. What did you expect? 120 points and a Stanley Cup?

In hindsight the Avs were a terrible match up. Up and coming team that played playoff hockey for 2 months just to get in. That second half they made the transition from a good team to a cup contending team as evidenced from the past season. Getting the Avs in the playoffs was not a great prize from finishing first in the west.

You can't write off a 107 point season because of a "hot start". That hot start was over 60% of the season. They finished with the second best record in the entire league. That is an over achievement given the roster we had. Even after the All Star break the Flames still went 17-12-2. Not elite, but above average. All teams go through highs and lows.

The Flames had a pedestrian start to the 19-20 season, but I don't think Peter's job was ever in danger.

Granteed and I basically never agree but it makes me chuckle every time I read about how the avs were not a typical 8th seed.

YOU HAVE TO BEAT GOOD TEAMS TO WIN IN THE PLAYOFFS!

it is not in any way a mitigation to get bounced in round 1 as the western conference champs by a team that got bounced the following round.

It is such a flames fan mentality to excuse that absolutely putrid loss by explaining it away to the Avs being good.

The flames got all-world goaltending two freaking years in a row now, the type of goaltending you sign a deal with the devil to get, and couldn't make any hay out of it.

The team is really bad. No coach was going to save it, and that's as much or more on the GM than any coaching hire deficiencies that might be at play.

[indes]

[QUOTE=Gaudreau is a Ninja;7572907]

Originally Posted by indes

Our inability to gain the zone or breakout in a quick transition is most certainly on Ward. Gio, Brodie, Hanifin, Backlund, Gaudreau, Lindholm;. All of these guys have excelled at quick transition breakouts. We now use a dump and chase 90% of the time, do you think Johnny and Mangi want to chase the pucks in the corner?[/QUOTE

Yep it’s the coach’s fault AGAIN, fire him(a Stanley cup winner) and hire yet another coach

Tim Thomas is a Stanley Cup Winner, should he be our #1C?

I'm just saying we've seen all of these players excel at quick transitions and aggressive offence. That being said this only comes out when we're down, after attempting to dump, chase and hope for lucky bounces for 50 minutes of a game.

I just hope he makes some changes, we're too small of a team to keep playing a slow game. Since Hartley we've become way too passive of a team IMO.

[dammage79]

The coaching turnover rate in calgary vs core player turnover is abysmally lopsided. At least a box on the list is checked off.

Now there better darned well be an earthshattering kick to the groin of the core.

[Icon]

I've been trying to come up with a response for this news since it broke, but every talking point I can come up with just makes me depressed and not want to delve into it further.


The least ranting reply I have is I feel the Flames team isn't built correctly. So starting next season with last years' parts (coach included) doesn't seem like the answer. But I'll hold off on the full rant until we see what the team looks like after the draft and free agency.

[Gaudreau is a Ninja]

[QUOTE=indes;7572917]

Originally Posted by Gaudreau is a Ninja

Tim Thomas is a Stanley Cup Winner, should he be our #1C?

I'm just saying we've seen all of these players excel at quick transitions and aggressive offence. That being said this only comes out when we're down, after attempting to dump, chase and hope for lucky bounces for 50 minutes of a game.

I just hope he makes some changes, we're too small of a team to keep playing a slow game. Since Hartley we've become way too passive of a team IMO.

Sorry man I forgot the Bruins didn’t have a team or coaching staff playing in front of Thomas I just think Ward is a quality head coach but is he the man to lead this team? I hope so. I think it really depends on how successful Tre is this offseason