Fire Huska

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Average team is doing average. Fire the coach.

Amazing analysis.

These are the kind of threads opposing fans come onto this site to laugh at us about.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Flame On

So a large number here seem to agree, not for now, but an eventual fire?

aren't all coaches eventually fired

[devo22]

If anything, I think Huska has them higher in the standings than they should be. Has coaching been perfect? No, and I would argue some aspects like the PP have been abysmal. But in general, I look at this team and see a group that should rather be in the mix for a top 3 pick than in the middle of the pack ... and I do think that we will slowly but surely get to where we should be in the standings, but so far, Huska has squeezed out more of this squad than I thought he would. The younger guys have also done quite well under him - Zary has been awesome, guys like Pospisil have exceeded expectations and I'm looking forward to see what Pelletier can do. All about player development for me this year, in addition to selling at the deadline and stacking enough Ls to actually get a quality draft pick in for a change. If your expectations are playoffs when the top guys disappear, half a dozen Wranglers are in the lineup and the blueline features the likes of Gilbert, Oesterle and DeSimone as regulars, I don't know what to tell you.

I will say I didn't really like the Huska hire and would have prefered Mitch Love, but I don't think Huska has been bad. The roster just isn't good enough, and you start fixing that by selling at the deadline and accumulating picks and prospects, not by firing Huska.

[White Out 403]

it's going to take time to fix whats wrong with this team. if the organization is even willing. there needs to be new leadership and conroy seems as strong a candidate as anyone. but so long as ownership meddles (i cant prove it but its my hunch) the team will continue to spin its wheels.

[Nelson]

I like Huska a lot. I think he’s done a good job this season.

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Average team is doing average. Fire the coach.

Amazing analysis.

These are the kind of threads opposing fans come onto this site to laugh at us about.

Maybe they come here and laugh because anyone who doesn't toe the company line is ridiculed.

Our coach sent his worst defenseman out with under a minute to go in a tie game and that player hen cost the Flames the game. It's not rocket science to see he screwed up. That isn't learning on the job", that's making a dumb mistake that any competent coach would easily avoid.

Refusal to change lines that don't work, terrible PP, horrific defensive system. Huska isn't getting it done at all. Sutter may have been a hard ass, but he had he team playing way better than Huska does. Anyone who wants to say that isn't true is blinded for the hate of Sutter.

[Erick Estrada]

You only fire the head coach if the team is playing below expectations. I don't think that's the case here. He seems like a good coach for a rebuilding team and while overachieving may provide instant gratification to fans, it does nothing but hurt an organization that needs to rebuild/retool. They need higher draft picks if they are going to bring back elite talent to the organization and they need to start finishing in the bottom ten teams. That loss last night was frustrating but in the big picture is probably a good thing.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Maybe they come here and laugh because anyone who doesn't toe the company line is ridiculed.

Our coach sent his worst defenseman out with under a minute to go in a tie game and that player hen cost the Flames the game. It's not rocket science to see he screwed up. That isn't learning on the job", that's making a dumb mistake that any competent coach would easily avoid.

Refusal to change lines that don't work, terrible PP, horrific defensive system. Huska isn't getting it done at all. Sutter may have been a hard ass, but he had he team playing way better than Huska does. Anyone who wants to say that isn't true is blinded for the hate of Sutter.

Except Sutter was guilty of all the exact same things that you just criticized Huska for, especially putting 4th liners/bottom pairing D out in the final minute (that was so common it became a running joke), as well as a refusal to change lines that don't work and a defensive system that gave up a boatload.

And that’s not just a general statement, I can quote specific posts from you making those kind of criticisms against Sutter.

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Sutter absolutley refuses to separate Kadri and Huberdeau. I'd say if you don't mesh with your centre you are going to have a hard time of it.

Originally Posted by Infinit47

That's a coach who won't adjust his game plan, lines, matchups or ice time distribution.

Originally Posted by Infinit47

This team can't get away from Sutter's terrible brand of hockey soon enough. Love seeing Nick Ritchie on PP2 along with two dmen. Don't want to try and score or anything against the worst PK in the league.

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Stupid line combos, stupid minute distribution, absolute love affairs with certain useless players.

Nobody is laughing at some made up idea of “toeing the company line,” which is just another made up excuse for people to try to justify criticism for the sake of it. But going from criticizing Sutter for months and months right up to the very end of the season, and then right from the start of the next placing all those same criticisms on Huska and praising Sutter is hilarious.

Guess you’re just blinded by your hate of Sutter… or Huska… or something.

[Captain Otto]

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Forces the 4th line with two absolute raw rookies out for the tieing goal, then throws Osterle out with less than a minute to go and he predictably backs all the way up and deflects a puck into his own net.

If not for Markstrom's play this season we are bottom 5 and everyone is laughing at the Huska hire.

This team's looks absolutley awful and the biggest issue right now is their systems suck. Zero pucks to the slot in the offensive zone, super passive "zone defence". A PP that would be better if we just kept running our regular line combo's.

Fire the lot of these coaches and hire absolutely anyone with NHL experience.

OMG man. Give it a rest.

I have no idea what Huska did to you in this life or a former one, but damn, you need to stop.

We ALL get it, you hate him. You want him gone. There's no question about where you stand. Just move on.

[Huntingwhale]

Imagine blaming the newly hired coach when your team has:

- 0 elite players
- 0 game breakers
- 0 clutch performers (outside of the goalies on occassion)
- 0 go-to shootout specialists
- 0 ability to beat your arch rival up north for years now
- and most importantly, 0 support from your owner to go down the path of a full rebuild to acquire said elite talent

Huska is far down the list of issues with the team this season.

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Except Sutter was guilty of all the exact same things that you just criticized Huska for, especially putting 4th liners/bottom pairing D out in the final minute (that was so common it became a running joke), as well as a refusal to change lines that don't work and a defensive system that gave up a boatload.

And that’s not just a general statement, I can quote specific posts from you making those kind of criticisms against Sutter.









Nobody is laughing at some made up idea of “toeing the company line,” which is just another made up excuse for people to try to justify criticism for the sake of it. But going from criticizing Sutter for months and months right up to the very end of the season, and then right from the start of the next placing all those same criticisms on Huska and praising Sutter is hilarious.

Guess you’re just blinded by your hate of Sutter… or Huska… or something.

I criticised Sutter for his player deployment (overplay veterans), refusal to give young guys a chance (see veterans) and overall the way he treated people (see media comments which was apparently the least of it). His hockey system was sound, and was much better at winning than Huska's passive, I hope they don't make a nice play and score wet noodle version of zone defense...whichvalso somehow simultaneously tries to clog up the neutral zone, but also repeatedly gives up breakaways.

The Flames have not had a proper coaching search in 20 years. We go from Sutter, to nobodies, back to a different Sutter, to some has-beens, to more nobodies, back to the original Sutter, and now hired the guy who just happened to be around when we fired Sutter for the second time.

The coach hires of this team deserve criticism every bit as much as the players do. People like seeing young guys like Zary do well, and so are overlooking the fact that Huska's system overall is a tire fire.

I've asked repeatedly what people think is good about the system Huska has implemented and nobody ever responds with anything other than he plays young guys or the players suck and it's not his fault. He runs an effective PK, but outside of that I would love someone to describe the positives of his system for the other 55 minutes a night.

[CSharp]

Damn, why don't we bring up the Wranglers and replace the Flames as the NHL team while we're at it? Seems like there's no end to want to see junior players and coaches making it up to the big league here in Calgary! WTF?

[Press Level]

Really needed a laugh this morning. Thanks for this.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Huska has been fine.

Getting mad that Oesterle was out... ok so what do you want him to do? You need to play your players. You can't just ride Tanev for the last 5 minutes of the game. Half your team is competent and the other half are prone to mistakes either due to experience or capability. That's the state of this hockey team's roster.

There is a lot of confirmation bias surrounding 'good' coaching. A team like the Flames at this stage tends to attract young/lesser experienced coaches and more experienced coaches gravitate to more experienced/quality rosters. I'm hard pressed to see how a 'better' coach would necessarily have this team at a meaningfully higher point total. We had one last year and we saw where that ended up.

The guy has been given a large number of young, inexperienced players and he's incorporated them well and we're generally a competitive. The work ethic is there on most nights. They look way better this year, and are more fun to watch, than under the 'experienced' coach in charge last year.

[kermitology]

The Flames losing games isn't really on coaching for the most part. It's because the roster is full of tweeners or guys who shouldn't really be in the league. Osterle and Gilbert as a pairing is not good even on your 5/6 pair.

But this team is probably overachieving based on the roster.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Imagine blaming the newly hired coach when your team has:

- 0 elite players
- 0 game breakers
- 0 clutch performers (outside of the goalies on occassion)
- 0 go-to shootout specialists
- 0 ability to beat your arch rival up north for years now
- and most importantly, 0 support from your owner to go down the path of a full rebuild to acquire said elite talent

Huska is far down the list of issues with the team this season.

I'm going to push back on this one. Sharangovich has great numbers in the shootout this year and has displayed some very good ability in that aspect of the game.

Now you may continue describing how bad we are.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Maybe they come here and laugh because anyone who doesn't toe the company line is ridiculed.

Not sure why I'm bothering...................

Toe the company line. I mean, I'm not even sure what you're getting at here. The Flames have a new coach this season who has the team right about, or possibly higher, in the standings where they should be. This is not a good team with basically zero elite talent. We haven't even hit the All Star break yet. You really believe......and I mean really believe......there's a chance they'd fire him right now? That's insane.

You're very quiet when they're winning. When they're losing you're gumming up threads blasting Huska for everything. It's just bizarre man.

[BigT112]

Can we change the thread title to "Keep Huska for 10 years?" This franchise desperately needs coaching stability. The issues aren't with the coach.

[GreenLantern2814]

The players haven’t tuned the coach out, not remotely.

Why anyone would want to fire this man to improve results this year, I can’t imagine.

[Macho0978]

People do realize we are about to trade guys who play against tough match ups, play on our 1st PK unit, are asked to take defensive zone faceoffs and start almost every shift in the defensive zone for draft picks and prospects.

Maybe we need to see who is going to step up, Backlund can't be out there for 20 mins in the 3rd protecting the lead.

Going full rebuild will put young players in situations that haven't played in the NHL yet.