[News] Darryl Sutter out as Head Coach. Maloney presser at 11:30 AM MT

[CGY12]

I think a lot of people who you might consider old school, get more stubborn as they get older, firmly believing in the process they've become accustomed too and the style of play they deem to be the only way to play.

The league is full of youth, allowing certain young prospects who are the future of the team, to be injected into the line up and learn on the fly. For one, in a cap world its basically a necessity, and two it provides a jolt of enthusiasm/energy that vets really can't maintain through an 82 game season. The process and philosophy Darryl has about "paying your dues" in the minors for a certain period of time is ancient. Now does this mean promote everybody and immediately put them in the lineup? No, but Darryls neglect to guys like Phillips, Pelletier, Ruzicka, among others because they didn't fit his mold of an ideal hockey player and or haven't played enough in the A, was reason enough to get him fired in my opinion. It obviously still needs to be earned but the defiance and continuous use of guys like Lewis, Lucic, Ritchie x2, etc. was so short sighted.

Then you add in the fact that, from my perspective, he didn't seem to properly adjust/adapt to the new roster in front of him, made this a no brainer. You can't coach or implement things you are convinced is the only path to success because its your way or the highway. He needed to see the personalities and skill set on the club and find the best way to get the most out of playing to the individual players and teams strengths.

Thanks Darryl for your loyalty to the city and the franchise but it was certainly time to go. Whoever comes in and by the sounds of Maloney today, I'm actually excited to see some youth and better brand of hockey next year.

[indes]

I'm glad he's gone. I'm a huge Darryl Sutter fan but his insistence to limit the top players ice time and put the 4th line out in the dying minutes of games completely soured him to me. When 31 teams are riding their horses to win games and yours are in the stables, it's gonna be a bad time.

And that's just a generalization - there was a lot of very confusing decisions by Sutter this year. I think he was just done.

[JohnnyB]

The team could have a good bounce back next season with a new coach and make the playoffs, but I actually find myself kind of disliking the whole organization after the last year. Maloney seems nice and like a decent guy who will mop up the mess after everyone else has left the party, but I'm not really hyped on cheering that on, or cheering for any of what the Flames currently offer as an entertainment product. There's not much left to cheer for in the organization after the last epic year of implosion.

Maybe I should just blame it all on whoever made the call to bring back the pedestal jerseys. It's like the team went through a time machine back to that era. They're a mess.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I'd be perfectly fine with his offensive production from last year if he just bothered to play defense. Easily the worst defensive forward on the team last year, something that he was relatively known for too. That was the most baffling thing to me, far more than Huberdeau's offensive production drop. I figured Kadri would do well in a Sutter system on the defensive end, but it was abysmal.

Agreed here.

Kadri gets lumped into Huberdeau category but I hope people temper expectations.

His offensive numbers looked fine it was everything else's that made him a great addition. The agitation the heart and passionate and chip in his shoulder.

He might as well have wore sunglasses during the game and a Cape and called himself Mr. Hollywood.

Let's get back being Kadri get that heart and soul and give a eff back.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by BoLevi

But he likes his ranch

To say he coached us like we are a charity was absurd but I do think his legacy in life is the farm.

I don't think he does farming for the money it seems like he enjoys it and it's going to be in the family forver.

[Rick M.]

Sutter’s decision not to name a team Captain may have cost him his job. There was nobody to be a buffer between Darryl, with his moods, and his players.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by Azhouse

Am I alone in NOT wanting Conroy as GM?

EDIT: sorry! misread. I missed the massive "NOT"!!!

[Azure]

Leadership isn't easy.

Darryl goes to coach LA, which is also a 'project' team who needs someone to put them over the hump. He wins 2 cups.

He comes to coach Calgary, another 'project' team who needs someone to push them.

2 best players get traded, GM gets fired, he gets fired halfway into his tenure.

At the same time LA, with some of the same players that were part of Darryl's group are still there, and have managed to go from winning the Stanley Cup with Darryl, kinda sucking which led to Darryl get fired, to small rebuild, to making playoffs again with younger team but some core pieces still being there.

Question is, how much of a difference does a strong leadership group among the players mean, and how much is attributed to that group being able to help dictate the direction of the team.

Like with not practising the PP. There is no way a strong leadership group to whom the coaching staff actually listens would allow that to pass for even a day. But in this case it went on for weeks?

A lot of what happened here makes no sense.

Change of leadership can make a huge difference, as people get stale and are not willing to work with one another, however at the same time I feel that strong leadership can make the same group of people who hate each other learn to work with each other and be successful. Especially when you have a group of people (NHL players) who for the most part have worked hard most of their careers to be successful.

[dammage79]

Would hope they have the GM office in place before the draft. Or, Maloney just let's the scouting staff do it's job. That department is fine.

I'm excited for the changes, sounds like there's a strong possibility of a total clean slate in the entire coaching department. I'm okay with letting Huska and Muller go on to new ventures.

New GM hires his staff, New coach picks his entire staff.

Cmon let these dominoes fall already!

[calumniate]

A couple of things really bothered me this year. Pressing on Markstrom when Vladar had a legitimately solid points percentage. Nick Ritchie in the shootout.. that must have been so insulting to some of the players on the bench.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Azure

Leadership isn't easy.

Darryl goes to coach LA, which is also a 'project' team who needs someone to put them over the hump. He wins 2 cups.

He comes to coach Calgary, another 'project' team who needs someone to push them.

2 best players get traded, GM gets fired, he gets fired halfway into his tenure.

At the same time LA, with some of the same players that were part of Darryl's group are still there, and have managed to go from winning the Stanley Cup with Darryl, kinda sucking which led to Darryl get fired, to small rebuild, to making playoffs again with younger team but some core pieces still being there.

Question is, how much of a difference does a strong leadership group among the players mean, and how much is attributed to that group being able to help dictate the direction of the team.

Like with not practising the PP. There is no way a strong leadership group to whom the coaching staff actually listens would allow that to pass for even a day. But in this case it went on for weeks?

A lot of what happened here makes no sense.

Change of leadership can make a huge difference, as people get stale and are not willing to work with one another, however at the same time I feel that strong leadership can make the same group of people who hate each other learn to work with each other and be successful. Especially when you have a group of people (NHL players) who for the most part have worked hard most of their careers to be successful.

There are a few things you can point to I think in differences between LA and Calgary:
1) Location - obviously - being in LA during the winter is better than Calgary
2) Star player nationality - Gaudreau and Tkachuk were both American and may have preferred going back to the US. Became more of an issue during covid.
3) Winning - does everyone leave if they beat Edmonton and have a convincing series against Colorado in the WCF or win a cup?

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by indes

I'm glad he's gone. I'm a huge Darryl Sutter fan but his insistence to limit the top players ice time and put the 4th line out in the dying minutes of games completely soured him to me. When 31 teams are riding their horses to win games and yours are in the stables, it's gonna be a bad time.

And that's just a generalization - there was a lot of very confusing decisions by Sutter this year. I think he was just done.

I think there is a decent chance that next year's team is no better than this year's team (or worse). Sutter can still get results for the most part and if you get normal goaltending - they probably make the playoffs.

But you also end up running a bunch of guys out of town, never playing young guys and you are worse off in the long run despite potentially having a better record next year.

[red sky]

Originally Posted by calumniate

A couple of things really bothered me this year. Pressing on Markstrom when Vladar had a legitimately solid points percentage. Nick Ritchie in the shootout.. that must have been so insulting to some of the players on the bench.

There were times it was clear that Vladar should start and Sutter, who has the final say, disregarded the preference/suggestion of the goalie coach, which obviously didn't help with the tension of the room.

[indes]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

I think there is a decent chance that next year's team is no better than this year's team (or worse). Sutter can still get results for the most part and if you get normal goaltending - they probably make the playoffs.



But you also end up running a bunch of guys out of town, never playing young guys and you are worse off in the long run despite potentially having a better record next year.

Fair point, the goaltending really did sink the season and we probably wouldn't be having this discussion with league average goaltending. I'm glad we're at this point with a fresh look though.

Even though the team metrics say we should've won way more than we did I never got that impression from watching this group. I thought most of the season was extremely uninspiring despite the effort you could see individually from the players. It was either the culture, the system or the deployment and at the end of the day all those bucks stop with the coach.

Hopefully somehow this all works out lol. As a lifelong flames fan, I have my doubts.

[The Fisher Account]

Season on the line and he taps Nick Ritchie on the shoulder.

Guy should have been gone that night.

Edit: wrong brother LOL

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by The Fisher Account

Season on the line and he taps Brett Ritchie on the shoulder.

Guy should have been gone that night.

He had a long reach then.

[ricardodw]

Does Kirk Muller have first right of refusal on the head job in Calgary? What sort of contract does Muller have?

[Toonage]

No.

He's essentially done. Sutter was the only coach with a contract.

Muller will get some friendly press but he's been a failure as a head coach and was a Treliving hire, thought to be brought in as the heir apparent. Thats off the table.

[Fan in Exile]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

He had a long reach then.

He taps Brett and asks him who he should put out there. Brett says "why not my brother?"

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Agreed here.

Kadri gets lumped into Huberdeau category but I hope people temper expectations.

His offensive numbers looked fine it was everything else's that made him a great addition. The agitation the heart and passionate and chip in his shoulder.

He might as well have wore sunglasses during the game and a Cape and called himself Mr. Hollywood.

Let's get back being Kadri get that heart and soul and give a eff back.

I agree. He looked like he mailed in the last 30 games or so. He looked great at the start of the season.

Guess we’ll see which Kadri shows up next season.