Calgary Flames Coach Ranking #1

[Steve Bozek]

I’d not rate Crisp as a great coach. With the teams he was given, there should have been at least one more Cup. With a President’s Trophy team in ‘88, he dropped Johnson’s method for beating the Oilers and got swept in the playoffs. He didn’t have the team ready for the Canucks in ‘89, and almost blew it. The playoff first round loss to the Kings in ‘90 probably reflected his loss of the room, and it wasn’t surprising that he was fired right afterward.

Johnson’s number 1 for me, for reasons outlined by posts above this one. Darryl comes in a strong second, and King, MacNeil and Pagé would be favoured before Crisp.

[EVERLAST]

Badger without hesitation.
What he did to change the culture and the impact he made with the players , his philosophy, his superstitions, the person he was .
Ask any of the alumni on that cup winning team....go ahead ask!!
Terry crisp ha ha ha ha ha .....what!? All his players knew he wasn't the reason they knew how to win and overcome because of BOB.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Sutter himself has disputed this. He readily admitted that he didn't believe he was getting even SJ's best goalie, and Kiprusiff was never at the time meant to be anything more than a stop-gap. So, in a way, he kind of did have Kiprusoff handed to him.

It was a tremendous trade, but Sutter most definitely got lucky.

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while this may be true, what I also know (I drove from Edm to Cgy the day the Kipper trade went down and listened to 960 most of that day) was that Sutter was pretty emphatic (in part speaking through Peter Maher) that the Flames had acquire a damn good goalie, of that he seemed pretty sure


so maybe he got lucky, first in the sense that he was stuck needing and being allowed to get a goalie (period) but also maybe b/c San Jose was so deep in net he couldn't go wrong, but he knew he was getting a good player

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I still contend that SJ would be a franchise with at least 2-3 cups under their belts with Kipper in net during those years.

I emphatically disagree. The SJ Sharks cannot, and will not ever win a championship. They have a long and well documented history of frittering away playoff series wins against obviously inferior teams. As good as Kiprusoff was, he would not have been enough to remove the blight in SJ.

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[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by looooob

while this may be true, what I also know (I drove from Edm to Cgy the day the Kipper trade went down and listened to 960 most of that day) was that Sutter was pretty emphatic (in part speaking through Peter Maher) that the Flames had acquire a damn good goalie, of that he seemed pretty sure...

Anything a NHL GM says in public on the heels of a traded should be taken with a grain of salt. I have no doubt that Sutter said this kind of stuff (I personally do not remember), but I am sceptical about how genuinely he believed everything he was promoting publicly.

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[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I emphatically disagree. The SJ Sharks cannot, and will not ever win a championship. They have a long and well documented history of frittering away playoff series wins against obviously inferior teams. As good as Kiprusoff was, he would not have been enough to remove the blight in SJ.

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Nabokov was a beast, goaltending wasn’t their issue.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Anything a NHL GM says in public on the heels of a traded should be taken with a grain of salt. I have no doubt that Sutter said this kind of stuff (I personally do not remember), but I am sceptical about how genuinely he believed everything he was promoting publicly.

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sure, I'm not naive to the ways of GM speak. I just remember this day so vividly and he was emphatic in a way Sutter certainly wasn't always when discussing players. I just remember having this odd calm feeling that this guy was going to be really good (which to be honest I totally lost the first game or so I watched him play in a Flames jersey)

[Strange Brew]

Still hashing out the Sutter GM argument I see. Ok I'll bite.

Getting Reinprecht, Warrener, Kipper, Nilson, Nieminen and Simon in his first 8 months on the job is the best run any new NHL GM has probably ever had.

Getting Kipper was no luckier than any other good trade. You can only acquire what the other guy is willing to give up. While the 2004 team was no powerhouse on paper, he improved them considerably and we saw in 2006 they had a very good regular season (albeit with some more changes).

[calf]

Originally Posted by loob job

I think we should have a vote to see if whomever voted for Greg Gilbert is allowed to stay as a contributor to this site?

I think having a former NHL coach's perspective is a welcome addition to the site, regardless of silly feuds and lack of success they had.

[chummer]

I voted for the wrong Sutter

[Mass_nerder]

Sutter because I was a year old in his last season here.

[pacde]

Bob Johnson

True student and teacher of the game
Maybe not most knowledgeable about hockey... but most knowledgeable about people

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Mass_nerder

Sutter because I was a year old in his last season here.

Are you nine-year old? Impressive.

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[codynw]

Gerard Gallant

[boogerz]

If we're considering Badger Bob and Darryl to be almost equal in coaching ability (both guys won cups and were great everywhere they coached), Badger Bob coached here twice as long as Darryl did and his tenure should give him the slight edge.

For the old-timers, any insight into how Badger Bob did when the Flames lost twice in the conference semis to the Oilers?

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by loob job

I think we should have a vote to see if whomever voted for Greg Gilbert is allowed to stay as a contributor to this site?

Obvious troll vote lol

[JD]

Originally Posted by bludawg

If we go with the 5 best and the 5 worst, can I put Gulutzan in all 5 of the worst?

Not as long as Greg Gilbert exists in the Flames record books!

As for this vote, I find it hard to pick between the two. I went with Darryl just because of how bleak things were with this franchise at the time. That run was just exactly what the Flames needed to breathe life back into themselves. I mean, other than cheering for Iginla goals, what else was there? Sutter changed all that and it was because of his coaching.

As for Bob Johnson, he was a unique and special coach. People forget about 1984, they had a lead in Game 7 in Northlands only to see it slip away in the third period. In 1986 Johnson made all the right adjustments and they pulled it off (albeit with a little help from Steve Smith). As mentioned by many, it was the foundation for the championship they did win.

[JohnnyB]

I'm not old enough to have seen what Bob Johnson did with the team, so I can't compare him and Sutter. I can say that Sutter is without doubt the best coach I have ever seen work with the Flames.

[MrMike]

This should also make Darryl Sutter one of the worst GM's for us ever, having gotten rid of our best coach ever.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I would argue the exact opposite. Looking back at that roster I'm even more amazed how close they came to winning it all.

Making the playoffs and getting past the first round was getting water from a stone. Winning the cup would have been filling a bathtub from a pebble.

While Badger changed the culture at the time, hard to argue Sutter didn't do the same. They were coming off an incredible period of futility, and no one believed in that organization at the time of Sutter's hiring. He flipped things around, and extremely fast.

Plus, Sutter didn't just get handed the greatest goalie in the league, he identified him as a 3rd stringer and brought him over.

While Sutter was a hell of a coach, 2004 roster was underrated. It looks worse than what it was because of its weak top 6 after Iginla. Nonetheless, they had the best goalie in the league. The best player in the league, whose style suits perfectly for playoffs. The best physical defenseman in the game - important role in the old NHL. Leopold was team USA top pairing D. Lydman was very good top 4 D. He went on back to back trips to ECF with Sabres next two seasons, and IIRC led them in ice time during one of those runs. Warrener was very good D who was built for playoffs. Yelle was a helluva checking center and so was Conroy. Gelinas was a very respected player with a ring and loads of experience.

They also had tremendous team speed. Not just hardwork. Team speed was unreal. They were widely considered one of the fastest teams in the NHL. And depth. It was not a top heavy team like later Sutter teams. It was a very good roster. Fast, deep, built for playoffs and had two superstars. They were legit team.