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

[taxbuster]

I'm just hoping to be able to resurrect my 2004-run team-signed jersey (purchased at an auction in March, just before that incredible time), and hope that it brings as many great memories as it did then!!

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Right, but look at that roster: Stephan Yelle and Oleg Saprykin were top-six scoring forwards. Rob Niedermayer was a second-line centre. Roman Turek was the staring goalie, and Jamie McLellan won a grand total of two games.

That was honestly a pretty terrible team.

Yep Darryl the GM deserves a ton of credit for what he did in the first year or two on the job.

We all know what happened afterwards.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Yep Darryl the GM deserves a ton of credit for what he did in the first year or two on the job.

We all know what happened afterwards.

Look, there’s no denying it got away from Darryl the GM at the end.

But until the Phaneuf trade, he was a good GM. He drafted Brodie, Backlund, signed Gio, acquired Kipper for a song, got Juice for nothing, stole Langkow from Phoenix, signed Hamrlik, the Simon/Nemo/Nilson additions, turning Tanguay into Cammalleri, Lombardi for Jokinen, Bouwmeester for nothing.

His first round picks, writ large, were not good. But aside from Nemisz over John Carlson, nobody was really left on the table, unless you expected him to reach in the late 1st for stars who went in the 2nd like Vlasic and ROR.

Ramholt Over Weber still hurts.

The Dion and Jokinen-NYR trades were awful, and it was a death spiral from there.

#### happens.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by troutman

It's a tough road to make the playoffs this year, but there is enough runway left to make a move. I'm more optimistic now.

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL/C...h/Calgary.html

Yesterday, I would have put their chances of making the playoffs at 10-20%

Today, I would put them at 70-75%.

In baseball terms:

2) WPG
3) MTL 2 back
4) EDM 2 1/2 back
5) CGY 4 back

We are a game and a half out of 4th, and 2 games out of 3rd, with 32 games remaining.

A 3 game winning streak would likely have them in a playoff spot

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Look, there’s no denying it got away from Darryl the GM at the end.

But until the Phaneuf trade, he was a good GM. He drafted Brodie, signed Gio, acquired Kipper for a song, got Juice for nothing, stole Langkow from Phoenix, signed Hamrlik, the Simon/Nemo/Nilson additions, turning Tanguay into Cammalleri, Lombardi for Jokinen, Bouwmeester for nothing.

The Dion and Jokinen-NYR trades were awful, and it was a death spiral from there.

#### happens.

He was a great GM during that time period. The improvement in talent from when he took over to when he entered the playoffs in 2004 was unreal.

[Nyah]

I pulled out my 'Believe' magazine from 2004 for nostalgia. I'm excited!

[FanIn80]

I'm hoping Gawdin sees some more NHL time now. If anyone's a Sutter player it's him.

[Calgary4LIfe]

I think there are a lot of people wondering how Gaudreau fits into a Darryl Sutter team.


I may be wrong, but I don't think that Sutter is going to change too much. Gaudreau's #1 job on this team will continue to be generating offence. That's the best thing that Gaudreau does as a player, and he is the best at it on this team.


I also don't think that Gaudreau has much of a GAF problem. When I see him play night in and night out, he always seems engaged. Sometimes things aren't working and he gets frustrated, but he seems like an engaged player most of the time. That's something Sutter demands all the time, and Gaudreau fits that.


How will his game really change here?


Think back to Hartley and to Peters. I remember in Gaudreau's first couple of years, I thought he was a sneaky 'Datsyuk-like' player in the way that he backchecks. That's how he is going to grow his game in Calgary again. Sutter isn't going to demand that he goes in hard against guys in the corner, and drops his mitts every 10 games. Sutter is going to demand that Gaudreau plays with a tonne of effort, and that he supports the team with great forechecking/backchecking pressure.


Gaudreau, IMO, is already fairly good at this. Sutter is just going to push a couple of buttons and Gaudreau will just do this more often with more resolve at doing it. Gaudreau will still be a high-scoring forward. Maybe not the 99 point player, but I also wouldn't rule that out.


The bigger question marks for me are Monahan and Lindholm, as well as Andersson and Kylington.


Monahan and Lindholm have been up and down. Sometimes really good, but often underwhelming at centre. Monahan was a solid 2-way centre under Hartley. Yeah, he was just starting his career, but he had effort in every zone. I think Darryl will help Monahan get there.


As for Lindholm - I don't have an explanation for why he is not really working at centre. I mean, he has nights where he seems like the defacto 1st line centre on this team, and then stretches where he seems invisible. I think Darryl will continue keeping him where he is though - don't think he is going to convert him to the wing.


Andersson is a guy I wonder about because he takes short-cuts. I notice him the most when the puck is being dumped into his corner as avoiding contact - not so much not willing to engage physically, but he is often not willing to take the hit to make the play. Yes, if you can avoid a hit, do it, as hits wear you down and impact your season. I am specifically referring to the times when Andersson CAN get to the puck first, but slows up and allows the forechecker to touch the puck first, and then he engages physically. Sometimes you just need to get to the puck first and move it, and take the hit while doing so. Stuff like that. I wonder if Darryl is going to keep all the pairings together, and what an impact he will have on them. I like Andersson, but I notice some of the bad tendencies that he has. I think he still has another level of upside to his game, and I think with Sutter, he is more likely to get there now. Don't misunderstand me - I love Andersson. He is already a very good player for Calgary, and I bet that he will get even better.



Kylington is the other guy. I don't see him being out-muscled all that often (kid is stronger than he looks).



I think what is wrong with Kylington is kind of the same issue as what is wrong with Bennett - mixed messaging. I think they will both benefit from a coach who tells them exactly what they need to improve on, how to improve on it, and will not allow them to be confused about it. When Bennett was scratched, remember what he said? "Maybe playing games." - now that is not an answer I want to hear from a player - that's not a 'character response' from a player in the first place, and Bennett deserves criticism for it. However, the bigger issue is that it seems that Bennett wasn't getting the message. Perhaps it was never conveyed to him on what exactly he needs to work on, or maybe he has been getting mixed-messaging.


Sutter is good at saying exactly what he means. Maybe that's what Bennett needs. Maybe it works out for Bennett, and maybe it won't. There are no guarantees that Sutter will like him. Bennett does make some terrible decisions at times, and his effort on the backcheck isn't always 100% (though he has made some fricken amazing efforts on saving goals that nobody seems to talk about much). I think this is as good a chance as any that Bennett will turn his game around, but it is not guaranteed. I look forward to seeing what happens there.


Kylington is in the same boat. This kid can skate, defend well, move the puck quickly, and shoots the puck like a beast (such an underrated wrister and slapper). Bingo was right in that he seems to pause with the puck a lot. I see Bennett doing this too. I think it is confidence and doing thing that aren't second nature. Darryl helps with this. Maybe he won't like Kylington and he will be expendable, as perhaps this 'freeze' he has at times is something you can't correct. I do think this is a really great shot for Kylington to become a regular NHL'er now.



This team has looked disjointed for a few seasons now. They started looking disjointed when the goalies couldn't make saves under Hartley. Then they looked disjointed for most of the time under Gulutzan. They looked like a machine mostly under Peters for a while, and then it just disappeared somehow. They have looked completely disorganized under Ward.


I think it will take a couple of weeks - and I hope that the Flames win more than they lose until then, and often the energy of the change gives an artificial uptick in performance, so here's hoping! - but I bet this team starts figuring it out.


I really believe in this team still. I still wish Brodie was here too, but Tanev has been really good and I think he will continue to be really good. I am glad that this change has been made before the core players were getting replaced. Gaudreau may or may not be the most purely skilled player that the Flames have ever had, but he is in the top 5 at least. Monahan is an exceptional finisher. I can go on through the list..


This team is a lot better than what their record indicated. What their record indicated was that they are who they are - an under-performing team. Sutter will get them back to performing for sure, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them out-performing expectations in time.

[Jore]

I haven't been following the team closely this season since they announced that Ward would be back, and this changes everything. Best coach they've had since... Darryl Sutter. With a top coach who can actually assess players, even if they flame out the rest of the season we can at least make the right changes

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Yesterday, I would have put their chances of making the playoffs at 10-20%

Today, I would put them at 70-75%.

In baseball terms:

2) WPG
3) MTL 2 back
4) EDM 2 1/2 back
5) CGY 4 back

We are a game and a half out of 4th, and 2 games out of 3rd, with 32 games remaining.

A 3 game winning streak would likely have them in a playoff spot

2 wins this weekend puts them into a tie with the Oilers and even in games played.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Yesterday, I would have put their chances of making the playoffs at 10-20%

Today, I would put them at 70-75%.

In baseball terms:

2) WPG
3) MTL 2 back
4) EDM 2 1/2 back
5) CGY 4 back

We are a game and a half out of 4th, and 2 games out of 3rd, with 32 games remaining.

A 3 game winning streak would likely have them in a playoff spot

It won't be easy. The other teams will be gaining points. They have games left with OTT and VAN. Three point O/T games. It is a deep hole, but there is time to get out of it.


I look at them needing 62 points.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Look, there’s no denying it got away from Darryl the GM at the end.

But until the Phaneuf trade, he was a good GM. He drafted Brodie, signed Gio, acquired Kipper for a song, got Juice for nothing, stole Langkow from Phoenix, signed Hamrlik, the Simon/Nemo/Nilson additions, turning Tanguay into Cammalleri, Lombardi for Jokinen, Bouwmeester for nothing.

The Dion and Jokinen-NYR trades were awful, and it was a death spiral from there.

#### happens.

Darryl's most serious flaw as a GM was in his drafting record, and this was well before he lost his mind. Yes, he snagged Brodie and Ferland in later rounds, and Backlund and Phaneuf were great first-round picks. But beyond these four guys there is almost nothing there through eight drafts. Out of 59 players he selected, nine played +200 NHL games, and Ferland and Backlund are the only forwards to score +50 career goals.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by getbak

2 wins this weekend puts them into a tie with the Oilers and even in games played.

Yes.

I meant a 3-game winning streak at any point.

Four teams within 4 games, and 3 of them make the playoffs.

And the Flames just got a massive injection of adrenalin and confidence. Now they have to convert that into momentum.

[calumniate]

Dang, I quite like it! Darryl might be hard but at least he understands that his players aren't all the same. He'll try to get them to play to their strengths a bit more I think. Effort's always required, but will hopefully be better than the gulutzan 'everyone play the same way' approach.

[Inglewood Jack]

even if the team doesn't end up reaching a whole new level under Darryl this year, the good old fashioned new coach bump would be sufficient go have them back in the race.

[curves2000]

I've mentioned this to a few friends and I remain in my belief that the driving force for this move, wasn't Tre. I don't think he was opposed to it since things weren't going well. I am not sure if ownership or high level management of the club decided to make some inquires for business purposes and more, but this doesn't have the makings of a Tre hire. How could it, when time and time again he has gone to say "This is the guy!" Sooner or later you need to demonstrate to your boss that you know wtf you are doing in a specific department and this wasn't really Tre's strong suit.

If Sutter is the guy and was Tre's choice, why wasn't this made when Peter's was fired or in the summer? It's not that Sutter wasn't available or had an issue with Calgary or anything along those lines. This is a logical move for the caliber of coach needed.

Tre wasn't going to get another coaching hire if he would have gone to ownership with some low level assistant who think's he's the smartest cat in the room or some AHL coach. Even coaches who have been out of the league for a while wouldn't have had a chance. This move, much to the hopeful benefit of the franchise was always going to be a Sutter, Babcock (doubtful), Julian and more type guy. It was going to be someone with some serious hardware, with a serious resume and someone who's **** had already been in the room 5 minutes before they got there.

It was never going to be some guy who's pointing to a laptop and a number on a board about how to win. The Flames needed a very very strong tactical manager of the game and they got that in Sutter. The Gully's and the Ward's were being tactically outmanaged enough that it wasn't having a positive effect on the team.

Tre's biggest issue is that he's an very active manager. I've heard enough about him fleecing all these teams on the draft day floor, doing massive due diligence on all these players and coaches and always on the phone and in on every deal. It hasn't worked at all and if we are being honest, a lot of the players in Calgary who have had a strong level of success and are key drivers of what little success Calgary has had, were drafted by Sutter and Feaster. End of story.

We are coming to a crossroads quickly with this franchise as this better have some success. A massive rebuild may be just around the corner if things don't go well as I highly doubt the ownership group and the sales team is interested in trying to fill a new building with the same story.

I am happy either way and looking forward to something positive with this club!

[Enoch Root]

I think Leivo will be interesting to watch

I expect he will be a better player under Darryl, and I would guess he will be on Monahan's line going forward

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I think Leivo will be interesting to watch

I expect he will be a better player under Darryl, and I would guess he will be on Monahan's line going forward

He also mentioned Nordstrom indirectly saying Brad did a good job snagging players from great teams like Boston.

Playoffs was pretty guaranteed with Ward as our coach. We want the damn cup with Sutter!

Flames work ethic level to win against our division. There is NO FLIPPING WAY Sutter is letting them play hard 10 to 15 mins a game.

60 mins to win against the Leafs

40 mins to win against the Jets

30 mins to win against the Oilers and Cdns

20 mins to win against the Canucks and Sens.

[Yamer]

I'm going to walk back my comments from last night. After listening to the press conference and interviews it sounds like this was a much longer, complicated process regarding bringing in Sutter. I would be very curious to know what held this back for so long, and why, ultimately, they settled on Ward in the off-season.

[howard_the_duck]

Now we just need to get Peter Maher back in the radio booth and life is good.