The trials and tribulations of Glen Gulutzan

[Inferno]

For anyone who doesn't get the reference:

Spoiler!

[Aarongavey]

GG = NG

That formula has always been the case.

[memphusk]

Bring Darryl in with Home Sweet Home playing in the background. I don't even like Motley Crue but that might bring a tear to my eye.

[Tailgator]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

GG = NG

That formula has always been the case.

And was accurate long before the baffling decision was made to hire him here

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by _Q_

I've heard some suggesting Vineault or Quenneville might be available at the end of the season. I'm not sure who would be the best choice today.

I am not sure why Quenneville would be available, he’s in the first year of a 3 year extension, makes $6M per season, and is doing his usual excellent job with the Hawks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

GG = NG

That formula has always been the case.

Except when GG is Gerard Gallant.

[ComixZone]

I just hit the wall with Gully. Last night’s post gamer presser...he stands there saying dismissively that if you judge a period by whether or not you score or not, well then they haven’t had good 1st periods but “if you’re judging them on how well you play”...nope, that’s it Gully.

All he said last night was the PP effectively lost them the game, and that they’re playing good 5v5....despite not scoring any goals and being outscored 2-0 during 5v5 play.

He’s a bad coach. That’s it. That’s all. Hopefully a change comes soon (tomorrow?)

[Racki]

I think that the crowd supporting Gulutzan expects that at some point our Corsi turns in to a big string of wins. I hope with all that I have that they are right. I just don't see a 10 game winning streak like we put together last year happening again for this team.

I just cannot see this coaching staff, at least no with that horrendous power play finding a way to get this team to play at a level that will produce consistent wins.

[kyuss275]

I don't see the point of firing GG mid season. Sorry but i do not want Sutter or Tippet coaching this team. Rather they give him to end of season , for better or for worse, and then go coach hunting in off season. Never know if a good head coach from other team gets let go at end of season. ( and yes, GM had a chance to grab a good established coach before hiring GG, but i'm not sure he would make that mistake again).

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

I don't see the point of firing GG mid season. Sorry but i do not want Sutter or Tippet coaching this team. Rather they give him to end of season , for better or for worse, and then go coach hunting in off season. Never know if a good head coach from other team gets let go at end of season. ( and yes, GM had a chance to grab a good established coach before hiring GG, but i'm not sure he would make that mistake again).

The problem is if GG are not going to get us into the playoffs we are in a very bad spot as we mortgaged the 2018 draft to try and win this year. If Tre is going to stand by his man and we continue to flounder he will have to consider selling off some assets at the deadline to recoup the draft. Rent out Backlund for a 1st, etc...

[GullFoss]

Random thoughts:

1) scorpion never started a "gg is rly good" redux thread when Nashville was up 2-0

2) again the flames make the opposition goalie look really good

3) again the flames get more scoring chances, but Nashville's chances were better. Quality vs quantity

4) PP sucks = bad coaching as per brad tre (When he fired hartley)

5) this team had no bite back in the third = mentally weak = coaching issue

6) good corsi is coming with a slow transition game which leads to more shots and scoring chances, but less high quality scoring chances

7) this team is built to be truculant, fast and skilled. It plays like none of these things. Truclent players: Hathaway lazar Bennett tkachuk ferland gio hamonic stone kulak. Non truculant players: Johnny, Brodie backlund stajan

[LanceUppercut]

I finally figured out what bothers me about Gulutzan's system. He keeps saying they want to play 50/50 hockey 5 on 5 and have good special teams to win. The special teams stink though and they do not change anything about them except putting Troy Brouwer on PP1.

Playing a coin flip 5 on 5 style and losing the special teams battle results in more losses than wins.

[sa226]

I don't really have a handle on how Treliving prefers to do business. Offseason vs in season evaluations and personnel decisions. I haven't seen any indication that he fights with his prideover decisions that he has made. It seems that he has tried to correct mistakes that he has made.

Im also pretty sure that he doesn't sleep.

All that being said, with Treliving and Burke at the helm and a slightly fidgity ownership group combined with the offseason feeling that they were gearing up for "going for it" more, you have to think there are behind the scenes in depth evaluations going on. The Flames are underachieving, big time. That's pretty much the beginning and the end of it. This team is underachieving.

We will never know the details, but I wonder what the results of the evaluations show.

If I were a betting man, given the lack of decent alternatives, I would guess that it will be status quo for the rest of the season to allow the leadership of the team to try and right the ship. If its a missed post season, or another one and done situation, everything should be on the table.

In my opinion, preaching patience last year made sense.

This year, whats their excuse?

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by timbit

Such a good league with such parity. So difficult for fans to have a realistic approach or opinion on where their team and coaching staff fits. Long season and little separation in the 4 to 12 teams in each conference.

Secondly, it kinda makes me laugh when one reads and hears the coaching critiques when things go awry through the first thirty, forty or fifty(?) games in the season. How would you know? Fact is how would one know what is happening regarding moves that are instructional, motivational and strategical?

The game outcomes?

Lots of good and bad things can happen over a season.

Can guarantee that not all the good and bad things are correlated to coaching.

When your teams’ best players are better than the other teams best players you win .

Yes, coaching is important.

Not sure anyone on this board can accurately critique and or give the coaching staff their due credit and/ or blame up to this point.

Posts like this really frustrate me.

Yes, there is a great deal of parity in the league, and the margin between winning and losing is razor thin. Yes, there are a LOT of moving parts to a professional hockey team. Yes, it's a long season with a great deal of ebb and flow. Yes, not all that is good or bad is attributable to the coach. And yes, it is very difficult to accurately assess how much of the success or struggles of a team are the result of the coach.

But it's not impossible.

There are a lot of fans with very little knowledge of how coaching impacts a professional team. But that doesn't mean that there are no fans with informed and valid opinions. Speaking in absolutes, and dismissing all opinions because it's a difficult thing to assess, is just as ridiculous as some of the outlandish views that get posted.

Despite all of the variables, and the fact that much of what takes place happens inside the room and thus unavailable to fans, there is one simple way to gain a starting point on the situation:

Does the team play to its abilities, above its abilities, or below? Even this question is difficult to assess, but not impossible. And from that, we can begin to evaluate the impact that the coaching staff is having, and the results that they are getting.

There are plenty of valid opinions on this site, on both sides of the argument.
And there are lots of very knowledgeable fans here with pretty informed opinions.

At the end of the day, all of the discussions are just that - opinions - but simply dismissing all views because you don't like the conclusion they draw, seems like a pretty weak view to me.

[Classic_Sniper]

People really need to get over Gulutzen. The hopes and prayers that you guys wake up and he’s been magically terminated is just foolishness. The team is playing well both visually and statistically and they’re in the midst of a playoff race. Coaches don’t get fired in these situations. You people are just so hung up on the idea that this team is supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender and because we’re not, it surely must be the coach.

News flash everyone, this team has lost the majority of their games because of the players on the ice, not the system. Bad penalties, turnovers, own goals, inability to finish, special teams, lack of bottom 6 scoring, these are the things that have been plaguing this team this year. These are not things that Gulutzen himself can necessarily control. The players play the game and they’re prepared on most nights to win, that’s on Gulutzen, it’s up to the players to cross that finish line, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

My main point is, everyone here just needs to stop making the coach the scapegoat here because even if Gulutzen were fired, there’s no guarantee that the next guy will make this team any better either.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

People really need to get over Gulutzen. The hopes and prayers that you guys wake up and he’s been magically terminated is just foolishness. The team is playing well both visually and statistically and they’re in the midst of a playoff race. Coaches don’t get fired in these situations. You people are just so hung up on the idea that this team is supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender and because we’re not, it surely must be the coach.

News flash everyone, this team has lost the majority of their games because of the players on the ice, not the system. Bad penalties, turnovers, own goals, inability to finish, special teams, lack of bottom 6 scoring, these are the things that have been plaguing this team this year. These are not things that Gulutzen himself can necessarily control. The players play the game and they’re prepared on most nights to win, that’s on Gulutzen, it’s up to the players to cross that finish line, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

My main point is, everyone here just needs to stop making the coach the scapegoat here because even if Gulutzen were fired, there’s no guarantee that the next guy will make this team any better either.

That's right, there is no guarantee they would be better under a new coach. But here's the thing:

Things aren't where they should be. On paper, this team compares very evenly with Nashville. But they aren't winning as much as many people believe they should. And worse - they show little pushback and character.

It is impossible to tell how much of that is on the players, and how much is on the coaching staff. But it is almost a certainty that some of it is on the coaches.

And it's a lot easier to change the coach than the players. If they did, and we see the same mediocre team, then we know its the players (and we're even). If we do nothing, we remain more in the dark as to where the problems lie.

[taco.vidal]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

People really need to get over Gulutzen. The hopes and prayers that you guys wake up and he’s been magically terminated is just foolishness. The team is playing well both visually and statistically and they’re in the midst of a playoff race. Coaches don’t get fired in these situations. You people are just so hung up on the idea that this team is supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender and because we’re not, it surely must be the coach.

News flash everyone, this team has lost the majority of their games because of the players on the ice, not the system. Bad penalties, turnovers, own goals, inability to finish, special teams, lack of bottom 6 scoring, these are the things that have been plaguing this team this year. These are not things that Gulutzen himself can necessarily control. The players play the game and they’re prepared on most nights to win, that’s on Gulutzen, it’s up to the players to cross that finish line, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

My main point is, everyone here just needs to stop making the coach the scapegoat here because even if Gulutzen were fired, there’s no guarantee that the next guy will make this team any better either.

The team is sliding down the standings and is not showing any improvement in areas theyve struggled under GlueGun's tenure here.

Were playing well visually? Is that a moral victory for us? Is this similar to how Craig MacTavish said the Oilers were visually playing better even though they were continuing losing games? Were in trouble if were using Oiler logic to justify our mounting losses.

And youre right, there is no guarantee a new coach turns things around and gets us into the playoffs, but there not being a guarantee shouldnt be a reason to do nothing and stick with the failing GlueGun.

[flamesfever]

And if you believe the coach isn't a huge factor, just look at Toronto.

[zamler]

Visually? oh god....

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

That's right, there is no guarantee they would be better under a new coach. But here's the thing:

Things aren't where they should be. On paper, this team compares very evenly with Nashville. But they aren't winning as much as many people believe they should. And worse - they show little pushback and character.

It is impossible to tell how much of that is on the players, and how much is on the coaching staff. But it is almost a certainty that some of it is on the coaches.

And it's a lot easier to change the coach than the players. If they did, and we see the same mediocre team, then we know its the players (and we're even). If we do nothing, we remain more in the dark as to where the problems lie.

We only compare to Nashville because we’re defense heavy. Outside of that, this current Flames team hasn’t proven that we’re close to being a Stanley Cup contender. That was an unrealistic expectation going into this season. Just like in 15-16, we were told that we had one of the top defenses in the league by adding Dougie Hamilton and then we subsequently went on to miss the playoffs.

Adding a big name doesn’t just automatically make you an instant Stanley Cup contender. It’s a big jump from being a playoff team to winning multiple rounds in the playoffs. This is a young team with a lot of players who are still learning how to win night after night, maybe they’re just not there yet in their development.