Should the coach,GG, be brought back?

[The Yen Man]

Seems kind of like an irrelevant question IMO, since there's no way he's not back next year. He's improved the team on everything vs. last year, and is still signed for 2 more years. Does anyone honestly believe there's even a chance he's let go this off season?

[MarkGio]

I wouldn't say theres a guarantee he's back next year. We're not even sure Gulutzan was the guy they wanted to begin with. Now that there's some good coaches in the market, it's possible they explore this option. It's possible Gulutzan was a temporary fill until the right guy came around.

Good management involves exploring all options all the time

[automaton 3]

I think GG gets at least another year. The Flames made the playoffs after a dismal start, and went on a real tear to make that happen. Ended the year on a down slope though.

I think he does need some improvement with in-game adjustments and bench managment.

I think Gio should have had 30 minutes and Bartkowski closer to 0 all series.

Monahan, Versteeg and Bennett had lots of jump last night, and many coaches would have rode them - their respective ice times were 19:10, 17:23 and 15:00 though. By comparison Getzlaf played 24:38.

Gaudreau was having a rough night and he was out there for 20:56. Just not very good adjustments or utilization of players in my opinion.

[Flamenspiel]

I think GG is learning to be a good coach. He simply did not get the best out of the Flames in the playoffs, thats an issue and something the team needs to analyze. I am on the fence, I think that he has potential to be a great coach, can the Flames afford to wait?

[kevman]

You don't fire a coach after one year and a 17 pt. improvement. Simple.

[BigFlameDog]

I am not sure where to put this but I was listening to the game on ESPN LA radio let night as I happen to be down in the area Being a tourist. First of all they have a great radio duo...great balanced coverage and easy on the ears.

My point here is they were giving the flames a ton of credit and acknowledging that the series's could easily be 2-1 flames if not for some bounces and timely goals(basically throwing Elliot under without naming names).

They were talking about how the guys in the Ducks locker room knew they were fortunate and were giving the flames a lot of credit as well. Lots of talk about the young impressive core. Just thought I would share since there are so many around here who have decided the flames need to fire staff and players into the sun.

[calgaryred]

Originally Posted by Jagermeister

You just said you were going to cheer for the Oilers. Now you're making a thread about the Flames coach.

He's trolling to troll

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[The Fonz]

100% yes, bring him back, and this is coming from someone who was highly critical of him in the 1st half of the season.

If we'd have gotten .920 SV% goaltending (aka PLAYOFF AVERAGE), we'd have a 3-1 series lead over Anaheim right now.

[Backlunds_socks]

Originally Posted by Jagermeister

You just said you were going to cheer for the Oilers. Now you're making a thread about the Flames coach.

that was a sarcastic comment. Did it really need green text?

[PeteMoss]

Some on CP would be smart to take GG's 12 hour rule of not talking post game to calm their emotions.

Firing a coach who improved a team by double digits points in his first season is ridiculous.

[Anduril]

Issue with much of the bottom pairing defensemen comes down to the lack of talent rather than management. If we can't have a guy out there for more then 10 minutes then we're already playing short handed from the start because the roster isn't good enough.

Icetime for the 4 games without names:

Spoiler!

You could probably guess which Icetime belongs to who but between a penalty parade for the first two games and having to realistically manage a series, I don't see a whole lot wrong with the general icetime being spread this way.

Players ice time listed in order:

Spoiler!

Stone, Hamilton, Gio, Brodie, Engelland, Bartkowski

[stang]

EDIT: Wrong Thread

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Some on CP would be smart to take GG's 12 hour rule of not talking post game to calm their emotions.

Firing a coach who improved a team by double digits points in his first season is ridiculous.

The single biggest reason the Flames improved this year is because of goaltending and not because of Gulutzan. Put Ramo, Hiller and Ortio on this team and the Flames are easily bottom 10 maybe bottom 5.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The single biggest reason the Flames improved this year is because of goaltending and not because of Gulutzan. Put Ramo, Hiller and Ortio on this team and the Flames are easily bottom 10 maybe bottom 5.

Take it as you will, but advanced stats show a much better team under GG:

2015-16: 48.12% (21st)
2016-17: 50.56% (11th)

[TOfan]

Fire him.

The flames owe there season to some beer. Buy a case of PBR and place it on the bench.

[midniteowl]

I'm conflicted, yes the team improved in the standing under him. I can see the structure of his "system" paying dividends, it's his in-game management or lack there of that irks me. He doesn't seem to be able to adjust between period, and him not calling timeout at the appropriate time reminds me of Playfair, who had said that preferred to save the timeout until close to the end of the game in case the team needs it.

I hope GG can / will learn from his mistakes and improve on it.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The single biggest reason the Flames improved this year is because of goaltending and not because of Gulutzan. Put Ramo, Hiller and Ortio on this team and the Flames are easily bottom 10 maybe bottom 5.

This is flat out not true. The Flames play as a team, their breakouts, their puck possession, their puck distribution and their special teams were dramatically improved this season. The team looked nothing like it did under Hartley on the ice, and when they were on their game looked like an elite possession driver. The overall difference in coaching was obvious and significant, and it absolutely was a major factor in their 17 point improvement.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The single biggest reason the Flames improved this year is because of goaltending and not because of Gulutzan. Put Ramo, Hiller and Ortio on this team and the Flames are easily bottom 10 maybe bottom 5.

Yup, it's all the goalies. Had nothing to do with the other improvements across the board.

5v5 Corsi:
2015-16: 48.12% (21st)
2016-17: 50.56% (11th)

Goals Against Per Game
2015-16: 3.13 (30th)
2016-17: 2.67 (14th)

Power Play
2015-16: 17.0% (22nd)
2016-17: 20.2% (10th)

Penalty Kill
2015-16: 75.5% (30th)
2016-17: 81.6% (12th)

And while the team had a huge save percentage increase, it was still below average and it's not like strong goaltending was the only reason we won.

Save Percentage

2015-16: .892% (30th)
2016-17: .907% (21st)

He was also able to keep the goals per game relatively flat even though the shooting percentage dropped and the team was playing a much more structured and less run and gun style.

Team Shooting Percentage
2015-16: 9.6% (6th)
2016-17: 9.3% (14th)

Goals Per Game
2015-16: 2.79 (10th)
2016-17: 2.71 (16th)

Then you have to look at the fact that we also had the 2nd most penalties in the league, which really wasn't under his control IMO. (Stupid Wideman Effect)

Penalties Per Game
2015-16: 2.84 (5th)
2016-17: 3.38 (29th)

But sure lets fire the coach after one season after we made the playoffs and had a 17 point improvement, while from all accounts being liked and respected by all the players. I swear people have no patience on this forum and will never be happy with GG just because he wasn't the guy they wanted in the offseason.

[Serapth]

I really only have two major beefs with GG.

He has this tendency to play certain players way too long. Brouwer and Bouma certainly come to mind.

He has the worst timing in the universe for calling time outs.


Frankly as far as flaws go, I can live with both.

Next year, we have a mostly returning core that shouldn't get out to a month drought in learning the system. If we get a solid goaltender in who doesn't crap the bed to start the season, we should see a viable team from day one that improves on this years edition across the board.

That playoff sucked, but next year should be much better.

Plus Wideman will be gone so hopefully the NHL will just @$@#$# right off. The Wideman effect easily cost us several wins this year.

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This is flat out not true. The Flames play as a team, their breakouts, their puck possession, their puck distribution and their special teams were dramatically improved this season.

While there is some truth to what you say, there are a couple of issues I'd take with it, and I'm thinking only after the first 20 games - forget the start:

1. Yes, they improved their breakouts at times. And, they forgot all about how to break out when they got pressured or flustered. They forgot their game or they'd get lazy if they were winning by 3 goals, say (cf Anaheim game 3) and start playing "cute". It is absolutely incumbent on a coach to stop the team in its tracks when it's doing that, however he needs to. GG never, ever did so in my view - not even once the entire season.

2. Puck possession: again, at times they were good - but as a European team would NEVER do, they often gave possession away to change lines - and it burned them time and time again. Either get it deep and keep someone back while you change, or keep possession back of your own net and change. Making half-assed attempts to clear is a teachable moment. Not sure that lesson got translated to the team, based on how often it happened.

3. Puck distribution: better, but WAY too few shots. Too much focus on control when they needed to score. And, they'd eventually lose possession, so distribution doesn't really matter then, does it?

4. Special teams: again - at times better. But too often there were significant breakdowns where guys on the PP would try to do it all by themselves. The boneheaded stubbornness in keeping certain players on the PP (Brouwer eg.) when they weren't producing, and the failure to adapt to strategic changes suggests that they were out of ideas. Gio is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t passer; great shot when he makes it, but too often was blocked. Dougie has a terrific release from the back end and was a much better choice.

PK improved most of the time. Broke open a few games and that was good.

Biggest problem is not mentioned: failure to prepare the team to be ready to GO at the beginning of games and stay focused at the END of periods. The first failure could be on Sigalet/goalies, or on GG and the team. But too often they gave up goals in the first minute or two of games, and too often in the last minute(s) of periods. That's on the coach to me.