Countdown Poll - Flames coaches

[Jay Random]

Some people talk about belief as if it were the only thing that mattered: as if the Flames could have beaten the Oilers all along, if only they had believed hard enough – as if talent, preparation, hard work, and coaching were all irrelevant in the face of the almighty I THINK I CAN.

This habit has been greatly encouraged by that appalling book, The Secret: the authors of which are actually on record as saying that the Jews of Europe brought the Holocaust on themselves by having negative thoughts. You see, if only they had believed hard enough, nothing bad could ever have happened to them.

I'm glad you're not that kind of person, Jiri; but for a moment you were slipping into the kind of language that they use.

[JiriHrdina]

Oh cripes yeah, ask my friends and they will tell you of my long-winded and angry rants about The Secret.
I do think there is strength in believing you can do something. But the "stuff" to actually do it needs to be there too.

[Northendzone]

My first thought was that it might have been interesting to see what a guy like Greg Gilbert could have done with a decent team, but, then I remembered that he has not coached in the nhl again, so I guess he would be on the opposite end of the spectrum

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Oh cripes yeah, ask my friends and they will tell you of my long-winded and angry rants about The Secret.
I do think there is strength in believing you can do something. But the "stuff" to actually do it needs to be there too.

I'm glad we agree about that.

I'd say it was early in 1986 that the Flames finally got ‘the stuff’. Part of it, of course, was a brilliant coach who figured out exactly how to prepare his players to shut down the mighty Gretzky. A big part of it was having the players. Johnson's relentlessly upbeat attitude probably helped more with practice and preparation than with the actual games. But it all counts.

A little tidbit I remember about Badger Bob: When he coached the Flames, he was the first coach to use every player on special teams in practice. Everybody on the roster was assigned to either the PP or the PK for drills, to keep everybody involved, and also to make sure that everybody had some special-team reps if they had to fill in for one of the regulars. It seems like an obvious thing, but nobody else in the league was doing it then. Johnson's energy was infectious, partly because he gave his players plenty to do so the infection would catch.

I see a lot of the same qualities in Bob Hartley. But I also see some of Dave King there, the ability to make the most out of limited talent. All the Corsi nuts have been telling us for a year and a half that the Flames have no business being in hockey games; but Hartley figured out a strategy that would capitalize on the team's strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.

Like King, Hartley's defensive strategy relies heavily on shot-blocking. I remember an on-air conversation between Peter Maher and Doug Barkley, back when Dave King took over the Flames. One of them was saying he couldn't remember the last time a Calgary Flame had blocked a shot. Then King got Kevin Dahl, a fringe NHLer at best, to start doing it, and rewarded him with regular ice time. Pretty soon the whole team was blocking shots, and their goals against began to improve accordingly.

Now all we need is a President's Trophy and a Stanley Cup, so Hartley can remind me of Terry Crisp, too.

[killer_carlson]

badger bob is my favorite, and I love Sutter and Hartley, but I had to go with the only coach we've had to win us the cup.

Crisp was able to take a talent laden team to the promised land. Other coaches have had tremendously talented teams and not got it done. Crisp did. Have to give it to him.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

It's a great day for hockey.

It's ALWAYS a great day for hockey! Miss you, Badger.

[Dion]

''Who was the last NHL player from Princeton?'' he asked.
Before I could guess Syl Apps Jr., Johnson was telling me about
the NHL draft in 1985, when he was coach of the Calgary Flames.

Calgary had drafted Chris Biotti, a high school player who was headed
for Harvard, in the first round and was preparing to draft a Crimson
player, Lane MacDonald, in Round 2. ''Wait a minute!'' Johnson told
the assembled scouts. ''Who was the last Harvard guy to play in the
NHL?'' No one could remember. ''And we're about to draft two of
them!'' he said. The Flames passed on MacDonald until the third round and selected another Ivy Leaguer, Joe Nieuwendyk of Cornell, instead.

He coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1976 and the U.S. entry in the Canada Cup in '81 and '84. In '82, he was lured to the NHL by
Calgary. College coaches had never fared very well in the pros, but
Johnson broke that barrier by amassing a 193-155-52 record over his
five seasons with the Flames and taking them to the Stanley Cup
finals in '86. That year, in what remains the finest job of NHL
coaching I've seen, he steered Calgary past the Edmonton Oilers in a
seven-game Smythe Division final; it was the only time between '84
and '88 that Wayne Gretzky's prepotent Oilers were beaten in the
playoffs.

Every day was a great day for hockey in his eyes, and he somehow sold that feeling to his players. Johnson was professorial in his
approach to the game. He could talk for hours on the nuances of the
Czechoslovak national team's power play. He could cite from memory
what drills Soviet national coach Anatoly Tarasov put his team
through in the mid-'60s. Johnson's teams played an amalgam of
international styles, and the notebooks that Johnson kept during
games, filled with obscure data, were legendary.

He was a rah-rah human being, bullish on the game and the human
spirit, but he was strictly an intellectual coach. Johnson was not a
taskmaster. His practices were filled with discussions of strategy.
He seldom threatened or bullied his players. He did not motivate
through fear. He motivated by conveying his love of a challenge and
his desire that the players grasp the moment at hand. His players
didn't want to win for him, or to spite him. Johnson's gift was in
preparing a team so thoroughly that it believed, by god, it could win

http://www.si.com/vault/1991/12/09/1...d-best-booster

[Party Elephant]

I went with Daryl Sutter, but it's cool to read all these articles and stories about Bob Johnson. I was born in '88 so know very little about the flames in that era.

As a kid in the 90s, and I'm sure plenty of posters can relate to this, it wasn't even cool to like the flames. I still did, but a lot of my friends would claim to be Colorado fans, Detroit fans, Devils fans etc. Hard to blame them as no one our age could remember the Flames being a winning team. Daryl was the one who hauled us out of the dark ages and for that he gets my vote.

[Daradon]

Arg, so tough!

Sutter (Darryl) and Hartley are incredible. Crispy has the cup. Johnson did so much.

Well, I went old on the last one, I'll go new on this one. I pick Hartley. He has the coach of the year to back him up.

[Mister Yamoto]

I voted for Brian Sutter because he didn't get any votes.

He was pretty much my favourite Flame during those lean years. The top end of his teams were mostly floaters and the bottom end of his teams probably shouldn't have been in the NHL. But he kept them competitive. Almost made the playoffs one year.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if ownership had given Coates/Brian Sutter one more year. They had a pretty good young core. Iginla, Stillman, Bure, Regehr, Morris, Giguere etc. And they would likely have kept St Louis.

I'd like to see Duane, Ron and Rich get their shot one day. Hell, give Gary a try at it too.

[It's a great day 4 hockey]

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

The famous 7 point plan on defeating the Oilers

I copied and pasted this from HF. Thought some of you would enjoy a trip down memory lane and others would enjoy seeing it for the first time.

The plan actually came into effect during the last 2 games of the season, both against the Oilers. First game was a 4-4 tie, second was a 9-3 win for the Flames (5 PP goals), which gave the team the confidence to beat the Oilers going into the Playoff’s.
1) We wanted to leave their tough guys on the ice. We didn’t want to get involved with heir tough guys. We wanted to keep them on the ice because if they were playing then we didn’t have to be concerned with stopping Gretzky, Messier & Kurri
2) We had to key on Gretzky. When he was on the ice we wanted Sheehy on D against him, and either Carey Wilson or Doug Risebrough at centre. Sheey was able to get under Gretzkys skin, always yapping at him & hitting him. Gretzky called him a goon and said he shouldn’t even be on the ice. He had the Oilers worried more about Sheey and less about the game.
3) Neutralise Paul Coffey by having the RWer go after him. Bump him every chance, interfere with him, hold him up from getting back into play quickly. When we counter we will face only 1 dman instead of 2
4) Close the gap between our forwards & dmen to take away their crisscross patterns. On the counter attack move the puck straight ahead to the man in front with no cross ice passes. Ended up with more odd man rushes than they did. Very effective.
5) Messier/Anderson /Gretzky always went up the left side. Key on that area and don’t give them the blueline.
6) Colin Patterson’s job was to delay and demoralise Kurri to stop him from getting the clear passes from Gretzky.
7) We had to get ahead of Edmonton early to shut down their offence.