The Deal With Geoff Ward

[DropIt]

Same team has failed multiple coaches. Honestly can't picture this teams makeup winning with any coach and that's the bottom line

[Moneyhands23]

I like chicken, I like Liver...Meow mix Meow mix please Deliver!!

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by DropIt

Same team has failed multiple coaches. Honestly can't picture this teams makeup winning with any coach and that's the bottom line

We don't know the answer to this because since Hartley, they haven't played for a coach with a record of NHL success. Its just as possible they've always played for bad coaches.

[browna]

Originally Posted by DropIt

Same team has failed multiple coaches. Honestly can't picture this teams makeup winning with any coach and that's the bottom line

We won the Western Conference two seasons ago. And a Frolik tap in OT miss in Game 2 away from probably burying Colorado in the first round.

Edit:Frolik, not Backlund.
Backlund decided to just let McKinnon go by him in the other way up the ice to score the winner.

[TheSquatch]

So it's Backlund! I knew it!

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

Like how many more coaches will this team have to go through before this fanbase finally understands it’s not the coach.

Like I said, when they get a good one who wasn't picked from the bargain bin and still look like junk. Preferably one who doesn't have a past of being a racist #######.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Igottago

We don't know the answer to this because since Hartley, they haven't played for a coach with a record of NHL success. Its just as possible they've always played for bad coaches.

One thing is for sure, the fanbase's reactions (including my own) to Bob Hartley's firing:

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=154485


are in stark contrast to the reactions to Glen Gulutzan's firing (:

Post 1369 and onward

So is the fanbase "always" wanting the coach fired when the team does poorly? I don't think so. The 2015-16 Flames drafted 6th overall after a playoff season and a big offseason trade... and yet (a majority of) people were being patient with that coach based on what we saw on the ice.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

If you saw the interviews from Bennett and Gio yesterday, once the mandatory Bennett nonsense was dealt with, they said they need to get pucks in deep and be hard on the forecheck. *sigh*

I have tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but, yeah, I am tired of Geoff Ward

It’s the Oilers. Try to confuse their D and they will gladly oblige.

They’re giving the ago old standard replies.

Do you really expect them to respond with...


“Need better Width and Depth on the rush and in the OZ”.

“ We need to expand the OZ with larger triangulation”.

“Have to be more consistent in creating eye contact and better receiving angles for the puck carrier.“

“ We have to have better communication...more talk.”

“We need to create more time and space”

“Win the blue lines .“

That’s what they’re being told. Just not what they’re going to tell you.

[zamler]

Some good takes in that thread. Not sarcasm was entertained.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by timbit

They’re giving the ago old standard replies.

Do you really expect them to respond with...


“Need better Width and Depth on the rush and in the OZ”.

“ We need to expand the OZ with larger triangulation”.

“Have to be more consistent in creating eye contact and better receiving angles for the puck carrier.“

“ We have to have better communication...more talk.”

“We need to create more time and space”

“Win the blue lines .“

That’s what they’re being told. Just not what they’re going to tell you.

None of your stuff, I would’ve settled for using our speed to dictate the pace. Or traffic in front. Making life difficult for the goalie. That’s where it’s at

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

If you saw the interviews from Bennett and Gio yesterday, once the mandatory Bennett nonsense was dealt with, they said they need to get pucks in deep and be hard on the forecheck. *sigh*

I have tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but, yeah, I am tired of Geoff Ward

It’s the Oilers. Try to confuse their D and they will gladly oblige.

Exactly. I think I'm finding this season a lot less frustrating than others seem to be, as once they a) retained Ward, and b) didn't make any significant additions at forward, my expectations for this year went out the window.

Love the guy as an assistant, they should've just put him back to that. It's not even a ''he's too nice'' thing as I've read on these boards either, I just straight up don't like the style he has them playing, and I don't think he makes in-game adjusts well either.

This feels like the final season before some major changes, on and off the ice.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

None of your stuff, I would’ve settled for using our speed to dictate the pace. Or traffic in front. Making life difficult for the goalie. That’s where it’s at

I , literally, just explained how you “dictate speed” , create and maintain puck possession.

[djsFlames]

They had an opportunity to shake up the core after the bubble.

They didn't opt for it.

PLD became available. They bowed out of the bidding.

They brought back the same group with some fringe tinkering. The greatest positive of those has been the bottom pairing.

Otherwise it is more of what we've become accustomed to, and why should treliving or any one be surprised.

For the first 8 games however, it looked like Gaudreay and Monahan had elevated their games, which made up for the lack of depth scoring. It made a difference in some key games. Then after Gaudreau's great game and SO winner they disappeared again rather than continuing to pour it on. That just knocks us back down to mediocrity and an anemic offense.

The bright side is we don't allow a lot thanks to this vezina caliber goalie. But so long as no more than one or two guys up front steps up on any given night, we're just fighting to eke out a low scoring win.

We need more than half the forwards to put their best effort on the ice every night. No ####ing around. Driving the net. Trying to score like their jobs depend on it. Playing with intensity and passion.

We've seen each and every guy bring that at some point. Problem is they rarely all are firing at the same time.

Does that fall on coaching?

In a sense. On one hand it shouldn't be Wards job to tell these guys to play with passion. That should be a given, but alas they need motivating to stay on their toes. Management decided to go with a solid pro but one that didn't have any tricks in his bag or hardness to him.

End of the day, this falls on management for knowing the inconsistencies of this group and believing that a nice, inexperienced coach that wouldn't make their lives hard would bring out the best in them.

Or ownership if they refuse to allocate the needed money to fill that position adequately.

Either way you can only shake your head. Its not a bad team, but there is no one there to crack the whip or push the buttons.

Why limit the potential of your maxed cap group by going cheap with the leadership?

I don't know how to understand the logic there.

Then add that they had three cracks at it after Hartley and took more or less the same route each time - unproven at the NHL level.

Just hard to fathom considering how thoughtful and detail oriented Brad appears to be at every position except coaching, where he sets the bar befuddlingly low and I just can't wrap my mind around it.

It will ultimately be his downfall unless the players turn it around themselves, because they will not be pushed to do so.

If Treliving gets another chance at picking a coach, which he probably shouldn't, you damn well hope he learned something by now, cause holy ####.

[Sainters7]

I have a feeling larger changes would have occurred this past offseason if not for the whole Covid situation, and the season going into autumn the way it did. Had it just been a regular year ending in early June, with no economic fallout from the pandemic and a full offseason, I truly wonder if there would have been a much larger shakeup in Calgary in terms of bigger names shipped out, and also not extending Ward. Kinda feels like the current group was granted one final year to prove it just because of all that.

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just the feeling I had when nothing big really happened in that regard.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by timbit

I , literally, just explained how you “dictate speed” , create and maintain puck possession.

You do recognize I was giving the slightly more digestible player platitude

[GioforPM]

“PLD became available. They bowed out of the bidding.”

You wanted Calgary to beat the Winnipeg offer? For a guy who maybe wouldn’t even want to be here and would pull the same crap as he did there?

[timbit]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

You do recognize I was giving the slightly more digestible player platitude

That would be very difficult to discern or recognize, when your response opens with

“ None of your stuff”.

Agreed?

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by timbit

That would be very difficult to discern or recognize, when your response opens with

“ None of your stuff”.

Agreed?

Haha, sure, that’s fair. “None of your stuff, too specific”

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Dump and chase is a tool you need in your toolbox, which you don’t need to rely on as much when you have a quick transition game and play with pace. It was at its worst when Smith was here but it’s still not much better

Problem with this team’s “quick” transition game is that most opposition teams generally apply a hard forecheck on the Flames’ defensemen as well, so this team is in survival mode half the time just trying to clear the puck out of danger.

It honestly would be nice to have a couple big horses at the center position who can defend the cycle well then lug the puck up the middle of the ice and distribute equally well left or right. But the Flames don’t really have that guy(s), their best distributors sadly are on the wing (Gaudreau and Tkachuk) and wingers are more limited in their options to make plays.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Like I said, when they get a good one who wasn't picked from the bargain bin and still look like junk. Preferably one who doesn't have a past of being a racist #######.

Haven’t the Oilers already proven that “good” head coaches mean absolutely squat? This franchise paid for the big hall of fame names like the late Pat Quinn, and Ken Hitchcock. Top tier coaches like Todd McLellan and Dave Tippett. Up and comers like Eakins and Krueger. Yet, many of these coaches have been left completely bewildered and with a pink slip in their mailbox. Not to mention elite of the elite Mike Babcock failed to inspire his Toronto Maple Lead group. Is first time NHL head coach Sheldon Keefe just that much better than Mike Babcock or something?

Ragging on coaching is such low hanging fruit in my opinion. I will 90% of the time, put my blame on player and roster construction over coaching. Players play the game, they’re on the ice, they read the game, they make the plays or misplays that win the game or lose the game.