Flames fire Geoff Ward, hire Darryl Sutter, signs 3 year deal

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by Flame On

Anyone think Sutter will make a Captaincy change? Not going to weigh-in to whether that's needed etc. just now would be the understandable time, to do that if he wants to.

Why would he do that?

[krynski]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Lucic basically said the players weren’t trying hard enough, so he can’t be too unhappy. UNLESS he and Sutter didn’t get along in LA.

I think they got along.

https://www.nhl.com/kings/news/lucic...-live/c-873372

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

That roster is dog crap. It is far worse than the Flames 2004 Cup team.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

So you are saying MacT is the greatest playoff coach in the NHL?

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Lucic basically said the players weren’t trying hard enough, so he can’t be too unhappy. UNLESS he and Sutter didn’t get along in LA.

I believe he meant that there was confusion about how to work hard. This is understandable when confidence is low and players are playing not to lose, rather than playing to win.

He knows how hard you have to play to win, and how harder you have to play to win in the playoffs.

[PepsiFree]

900 posts late but holy #### this is exciting, what a way to start the day.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Flame On

Anyone think Sutter will make a Captaincy change? Not going to weigh-in to whether that's needed etc. just now would be the understandable time, to do that if he wants to.

He probably selects the next captain, but they'll likely let Gio ride out his captaincy into the sunset.

I don't think it's an important decision right now anyway. Overnight, Darryl became the be-all and end-all leader of this team. I don't want to say it's irrelevant who the captain is, but it's irrelevant right now.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by troutman

I hope to see more hits, more pressure.

You need to be big or fast, or both.

Happy Edmonton didn't hire him first, "to be quite honest".

Had to fix your post, we're back to Sutterisms now!

[djsFlames]

First full season in Calgary - Stanley Cup Finals
First season in LA - Stanley Cup


Place your bets.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

And, as I said elsewhere, the Panthers and Caps had worse finals teams. Look at the records in previous and subsequent years.

To do an apples and apples comparison one should count a loss as a loss in my opinion as there were no OT loss points for the caps or the panthers. With that caveat, the three franchise records were

Oilers - 18 games under .500 the year after their Cup appearance
Caps - 14 games under .500 the year after their Cup appearance
Panthers - 7 games above .500 above the year after their Cup appearance and made the playoffs losing in the first round.

The Oilers were terrible and one man, Chris Ponger, dragged them to the Finals. They were worse than the Caps and the Panthers.

[Bourque's Twin]

I have a very reliable source.

This was an ownership decision (not surprising).

[troutman]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Had to fix your post, we're back to Sutterisms now!

Pretty sure it is "quite honest" mostly, not "to be quite honest."

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Bourque's Twin

I have a very reliable source.

This was an ownership decision (not surprising).

IF this is true, then BT should be released as well...he has lost his autonomy.

Makes him a lame duck GM and that never ever goes well.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by transplant99

IF this is true, then BT should be released as well...he has lost his autonomy.

Makes him a lame duck GM and that never ever goes well.

As long as Sutter doesn't take on the GM role...............

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Bourque's Twin

I have a very reliable source.

This was an ownership decision (not surprising).

Usually not a fan of interventions from above but this is an exception.

Not surprising seeing their cap spending team/product using up its window on unproven coaches.

Get the local boy who has two cups in the last decade.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

As long as Sutter doesn't take on the GM role...............

That could certainly be an issue....and a possibility.

[Psytic]

I should have booked today off to celebrate. Couldn't be happier.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

So you are saying MacT is the greatest playoff coach in the NHL?

Did I say that?

No. As so often happens they rode a hot goalie performance for a month. Even before he was injured, Roloson already looked like he was turning back in to a pumpkin by the time the SCF started. Had he played through it that series could have burst the Oilers's bubble a lot sooner.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[krynski]

I love the timing on this.

Ward was an experiment. I understand that. He did an ok job, and was generally a good guy. However, he lacked the skills to get more out of his players. When Peters was canned, there was a lot of media scrutiny, and that had to be done quickly. Ward was next up, and it was an experiment. It's ok it didn't work out, he simply did not have the skills, but you really don't know with new coaches. At some point, you need new coaches in, and you have to experiment to see who will develop into an elite coach.

The timing is fantastic. Flames are struggling this year, but we aren't that far back of the Habs or Oilers. They are both definitely catchable. We have a great goaltender, a solid defense, and some great tools up front. A culture change had to happen, and culture starts at the top.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by transplant99

IF this is true, then BT should be released as well...he has lost his autonomy.

Makes him a lame duck GM and that never ever goes well.

It sounds like Sutter was considered in the offseason as well. I could imagine that ownership wanted Darryl and Treliving wanted Ward. Tree got his wish but I am sure the discussion would have been “if this fails then we bring in our guy”. Tree got half the season and the team was outside the playoffs looking in and the move happens.

[Steve Bozek]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Still better than that Flames group. Pronger played 31 mins a game! Insane. Also we need a statue of Pronger's wife in Calgary. Statues for everyone!

Scoring Goals Assists Ice Time
Rk Player Age Pos GP G A PTS
1 Chris Pronger* 31 D 24 5 16 21
2 Shawn Horcoff 27 LW 24 7 12 19
3 Fernando Pisani 29 C 24 14 4 18
4 Ales Hemsky 22 RW 24 6 11 17
5 Ryan Smyth 29 LW 24 7 9 16
6 Sergei Samsonov 27 LW 24 4 11
7 Jaroslav Spacek 31 D 24 3 11 14
8 Michael Peca 31 C 24 6 5 11
9 Raffi Torres 24 LW 22 4 7 11
10 Jarret Stoll 23 C 24 4 6 10
11 Steve Staios 32 D 24 1 5 6
12 Jason Smith 32 D 24 1 4 5
13 Rem Murray 33 C 24 0 4 4
14 Marc-Andre Bergeron 25 D 18 2 1 3
15 Ethan Moreau 30 LW 21 2 1 3

I think some of us don’t realize how good the ‘04 Flames were. While it’s true they didn’t have great scoring other than Iginla (who was, at that time,considered by many to be the best player in the world), the young defense was greatly under-rated and I would suggest that as a group, they were better than our present team’s defense personnel; the forwards were fast and were terrific at winning board battles, forecheck and cycling. And they had Kipper.

Before the playoffs there were comments that other teams didn’t want to be matched against the Flames. On the way to the finals they faced the top-seeded team in every series, beating the 3 top teams in the their conference, and came within a game or a disputed goal of beating the President’s Trophy winner. The Oilers, on the other hand, had the benefit of seeing all the top seeds eliminated in the first round. Their appearance in the final was much more of a fluke than the Flames’.