The trials and tribulations of Glen Gulutzan

[Backlunds_socks]

Originally Posted by stone hands

when brodano was a thing, brodie was bar none the best player on the flames and pretty much jesus

when gio went down everyone though this team was dead in the water but brodie kept the train going

i hate to speculate but i wonder how much of his decline has to do with his SO having ms. he has not been anywhere near the same player since she was diagnosed, its pretty night and day

Or even simpler play him as he was played when he had all that success/.

[stone hands]

I dont see how changing which side of the ice he plays on makes that much of a difference for the areas he has regressed in. he doesnt seem to have the wheels he used to, his passing isnt nearly as crisp, he has been good for at least a couple of completely boneheaded plays every single game, hes not as tenacious on the puck, etc

these aren't things i expect to regress this much from a guy who was the best player on a team with monahan, gio and gaudreau simply because he skates up the opposite side of the ice now(maybe the bonehead plays). i have hesitated to attribute most of his success to gio simply because he kept it up after gio went down, but i'm really starting to wonder how much of tj brojesus was a product of giordano

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

The day his 'decline' started was the day GG decided that left/right pairing absolutely had to be a thing. Brodie played RD his entire NHL career prior to that. When he got the full time gig with the Flames, Hartley lamented how Brodie had no idea how could he could be. During the early years of the rebuild, he was getting better and better every game.

I don't doubt his wife's diagnosis had an effect on him. But IMO the day his troubles started was the day he got shifted over to the left side simply because that's how he shot. Having Wideman as his partner didn't help of course.

I'm a patient guy and don't really get into the fire GG debate. But the one thing that drives me nuts about the coach is this LD/RD thing he has going on. Brodie on the RD was a top 20 D. A legit top pairing player. Brodie on the LD is a shell of his former self. He makes boneheaded plays that he simply never used to do. How many giveaways does he make a game now? He RARELY used to make those mistakes. Now it's a daily thing. Players aren't supposed to get worse in their primes years. Sadly, that is happening to Brodie.

Yes he has gotten better since Wideman left, there's no denying that. But no one can argue he's close to where he was previously. Even though Gio and Hamilton was a top pairing last season, I would still argue that Brodano was even better then them.

I hated how they got broken up, and I hate the LD/RD thing. Chemistry will always, 100% of the time triumph over having players play a position simply because of how they hold their stick.

I think Brodie's decline after the move to what the vats majority of coaches see as the the proper side (I've linked a Babcock video on this before) was more about who he used to play with. Brodie used to make boneheaded plays with Gio too, but Gio is great defensively and had a better knack for covering up.

I just can't see how being on one side or the other causes the issues I'm seeing. Especially after this amount of time.

[Backlunds_socks]

Originally Posted by stone hands

I dont see how changing which side of the ice he plays on makes that much of a difference for the areas he has regressed in. he doesnt seem to have the wheels he used to, his passing isnt nearly as crisp, he has been good for at least a couple of completely boneheaded plays every single game, hes not as tenacious on the puck, etc

these aren't things i expect to regress this much from a guy who was the best player on a team with monahan, gio and gaudreau simply because he skates up the opposite side of the ice now(maybe the bonehead plays). i have hesitated to attribute most of his success to gio simply because he kept it up after gio went down, but i'm really starting to wonder how much of tj brojesus was a product of giordano

Ofcourse it was. Anyone that plays with Gio has phenomenal performance, look at Hamilton? Can't be coincidence

But a simple start would be putting him back with Gio.

[mrdonkey]

Honest question, does anyone feel the Flames have won even a single game where the difference was coaching? And if so, do those instances outnumber the times where they’ve won in spite of coaching?

In my mind Gulutzan may not be the worst coach in the world but he sure has this team fighting uphill more often than not because of his questionable decisions and unwillingness to adapt and make changes. It was the same way with Brent Sutter. (remember his marriage to the Bouwmeester/Butler and Iginla/Jokinen experiments?)

It just seems like we’re constantly making excuses with this guy.

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Yeah Warrener said some interesting things today. Said when paired with a new defender he knew right away if it was going to work because you either clicked or your didn't and time wouldn't change that. Brodie and Wideman never clicked and things never improved but Brodie and Stone formed a decent pairing right away. It's looking like Brodie/Hamonic simply isn't going to work and playing them together for an entire season is likely going to lead to unfulfilled potential of the talent on the blue line. Unfortunately Gulutzan is probably the most stubborn head coach in the NHL so I feel this discussion is going to go long into the season.

I don't agree with this. It's not a simple a matter as "oh, it doesn't work, they're not feeling it so it's never going to work".

Our example of this would be the Giordano - Hamilton pairing. When it was first tried it was our worst defense pairing ever. When it was attempted again later on, they turned into one of the best top pairings in the entire league. Glen's approach of trying to force chemistry isn't necessarily the right one, but crossing it off his "list of defence pairings to try out" outright isn't realistic IMO.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Draug

And there is where I completely disagree. Of our 10 wins, I give Smith credit for a majority of them. Of our 8 losses, I blame the goaltending on a minority of them. Basically, I think goaltending had covered up for the team not playing sound hockey.

Well their all situations save percentage is ranked 20th overall, so that's a bit of a stretch.

Smith was great in several games this season, but the numbers don't suggest the Flames are riding goaltending to a plus .500 record.

Smith is an important part of the hockey team, but it doesn't boil down to all wins are due to Smith in spite of Gulutzan and all losses are Gulutzan on his own.

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by Bingo

So is this going to be a thing?

Win three and a row and all good. Lose one and we fire the coach again?

I've just never been the high of highs and low of lows guy so it always strikes me as a tough way to exist.

This probably isn't a fair categorization of my original position that GG isn't the coach to take this team - which I view as a strong stanley cup contender on paper - to the cup.

I laid out five issues with GG's coaching. Lets revisit them with updated comments in red:

Originally Posted by GullFoss

1) Defensive coverage is passive and lacks intensity - work in progress, but there seems to be marked improvements here

2) Special teams are terrible. PK is worse than terrible.
PP looking better

3) Outside of the 3M line, no one battles well in the offensive zone. As a result, there is no zone pressure Huge improvement here -
the 1st and 3rd lines are getting pressure. Even the fourth line is looking better

4) Ice time management is piss poor. The fourth line is getting 10-15 minutes a game, but is composed of Stajan and Glass, two players that are AHLers at best. Huge improvement here -Glass and Stajan are no longer getting ice time!!!!!

5) Bennett - the highest draft pick in flames history - isn't developing properly This is getting better since Jagr began helping him along, but he still looks very weak in terms of confidence and knowing where to be on the ice.

So of the five issues I laid out, two have been fully corrected (#3 and #4). Two look to be work in progress (#1 and #5). And one is still a problem (#2)

Things are definitely looking up...

[shadowlord]

We beat the Flyers 5-4 in OT. Obligatory bump.

Sent from my LG-V522 using Tapatalk

[AustinL_NHL]

Still can't believe how many people hate GG/don't think he's a good coach when all the evidence points towards him being a very good coach.

Yes, he makes some very questionable decisions that drives all of us nuts, but so does every coach. His player usage isn't the greatest, but there's absolutely no denying how incredibly far we've come as a team since he took over from Hartley.

[Kybb79]

Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL

Still can't believe how many people hate GG/don't think he's a good coach when all the evidence points towards him being a very good coach.

Yes, he makes some very questionable decisions that drives all of us nuts, but so does every coach. His player usage isn't the greatest, but there's absolutely no denying how incredibly far we've come as a team since he took over from Hartley.

Mike Smith is saving his butt this season.The D is supposed to be top 3 but they look top 20.Pk is killing us.

[Dion]

Brina Burke in fine form

“Unless you’ve got it in the room, unless you draft and trade with an eye towards lifestyle and culture, it doesn’t matter (how good your coach is). Jesus Christ couldn’t get 20 idiots to win,” Burke proclaimed.

“The guys we put in the room, we want a certain level of professionalism, we want certain attributes,” he added moments later, after everybody had recovered from the God reference. “Coachability, listening skills, empathy for teammates — all the stuff we look for, it takes time. You can’t change the room, you can’t change the whole thing overnight.”

http://calgarysun.com/sports/hockey/...4-952d5b3f2568

[Lanny_McDonald]

GG=NG, regardless of if the team wins.

[Dr. Doom]

I don't mind GG as coach but one thing I can't seem to understand is...

on paper defensively we should have one of the best in the league.
So why is it that we don't?

[tkflames]

Matt Stajan out there in the last 2 minutes of a tied game. That sums up everything about GG regarding situational awareness and bias to veterans.

The goal against total in the last 5 games even without the disaster in Detroit indicate a major issue with team defense. Thats on all 3 coaches.

Has the P.P been solved or was yesterday an anomaly? Time will tell, but the fact that we have a repeat of last year suggests to me that the rest of the NHL has figured out how to PK against us and we haven't adjusted.

Glad they pulled out the win yesterday. It shows the team has character, but the optics don't seem to reflect the results at the moment. I liked their game better against Pittsburgh and Washington in terms of control. This is far more entertaining, but likely not sustainable.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

^ I won't defend our PK because it's been god awful, but the power play has always been decent with this team.

We are currently 13th at just over 20%. Yesterday helped obviously, but that's what happens over the course of a season. Some games you can score and others it becomes a real challenge. I think a sample of roughly 20 games is big enough to see that the PP is working, but the PK is in serious trouble.

Part of the reason for the rough PK is system, but the other part is personnel. Our defense group has mostly not been very good on the defensive end this year, apart from Giordano.

[Major Major]

Originally Posted by New Era

GG=NG, regardless of if the team wins.

Don't know if serious, but if so, how much winning does that statement cover?

[Major Major]

Lol, the rallying cry of the no good fire GG crowd:

"Visually worse!"

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doom

I don't mind GG as coach but one thing I can't seem to understand is...

on paper defensively we should have one of the best in the league.
So why is it that we don't?

5 on 5 the Flames have the 6th best GA, pretty respectable..

[Robbob]

There are ebbs and flows to a season. Not many teams will be playing at there peak from game one. I think a sign of a good coach is teams don't go on prolonged losing streaks. Every team, and I mean every team is going to lose games this season. The key is minimizing streaks.

Regards to the pk, we have allowed 20 ppg so far. 14 of those came from 6 games. And 6 of the 20 goals are from two blow out losses. The % sucks, but it is heavily weighed down by a few games. I think you are better to look at the results.

5 games where multiple ppg are scored against we are 1-4-0
In the remaining games we allow one or less ppg we are 10-4-0