Should the Flames fire Gulutzan?

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Red

This thread may have started in December but these thoughts go back to last year. GG earned his rep over 100 games or so, not just a short losing streak.

This is weird, because "short losing streaks" are ALL that the Flames have accumulated in their time under Glen Gulutzan. Since he started coaching the Flames they have lost four games-in-a-row TWICE. In total in 127 regular season games. This season, the Flames's longest losing streak has been three games, and that has happened only once. This season, the Flames have not lost more than two regulation games-in-a-row, and have only done so a total of four times. Also worth mentioning here is that in the same period of time that Gulutzan has coached the team the Flames have a record of 50-0-2 when leading after two periods. That is exceptional, and all of this speaks to something that a bewildering number of posters continue to miss:

The Flames are a consistently good team that is showing a steady progression of improvement.

So, I cannot comment on what Gulutzan's reputation is, but I know what it should be: he is proving to be a coach that is helping to improve the team and make them more consistent. I am not sure why he seems to evoke such a strong negative opinion from a number of fans, but I do know that popular opinions are not always correct opinions. With great frequency opinions are driven by strong emotions, and this will often result in faulty conclusions.

There have been plenty of valid criticisms of the coaches for line deployment decisions and special team struggles, but the question here is whether these are enough on their own to advocate for an outright change behind the bench at this stage. I would say "no," and that to expect otherwise despite the number of ways in which Gulutzan has helped to improve the team is completely unreasonable.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Not gonna speculate on things I simply don’t know
Gg could have said I want him
Bt could have said ok but for now he needs to go down
Beats me
But it is the gms call

I am not disputing the org chart.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Yes those other ones are coach decisions
Someone has to own the decision with input from others
And when it comes to who goes down that person is the gm
If you want to stay in make believe world so you can blame gg go ahead
But don’t make it seem like you are somehow not wrong

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by zamler

I don't know what happened but Gulutzan had turned into a different coach. Maybe for the 1st half of the season he was MIA and a robot was behind the bench.

People like that he appears more emotionally engaged behind the bench, but I suspect this has very little to do with how the team performs. In terms of fundamentals it doesn't seem to me that much has changed from the beginning of the season. The team was never as bad as they appeared in small spurts through the first three weeks of December.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This is weird, because "short losing streaks" are ALL that the Flames have accumulated in their time under Glen Gulutzan. Since he started coaching the Flames they have lost four games-in-a-row TWICE. In total in 127 regular season games. This season, the Flames's longest losing streak has been three games, and that has happened only once. This season, the Flames have not lost more than two regulation games-in-a-row, and have only done so a total of four times. Also worth mentioning here is that in the same period of time that Gulutzan has coached the team the Flames have a record of 50-0-2 when leading after two periods. That is exceptional, and all of this speaks to something that a bewildering number of posters continue to miss:

The Flames are a consistently good team that is showing a steady progression of improvement.

So, I cannot comment on what Gulutzan's reputation is, but I know what it should be: he is proving to be a coach that is helping to improve the team and make them more consistent. I am not sure why he seems to evoke such a strong negative opinion from a number of fans, but I do know that popular opinions are not always correct opinions. With great frequency opinions are driven by strong emotions, and this will often result in faulty conclusions.

There have been plenty of valid criticisms of the coaches for line deployment decisions and special team struggles, but the question here is whether these are enough on their own to advocate for a coaching change at this stage. I would say "no," and that to expect otherwise despite the number of ways in which Gulutzan has helped to improve the team is completely unreasonable.

His reputation is that he coaches teams to sub .500 in regulation record. That was true till the streak.
He is also 0-4 in the playoffs.

I always asked the pro GG guys why they liked him. And outside of fancy stats we heard crickets. Good possession, sub .500 team in regulation. Season and quarter in I said enough, time for a change. So sue me for being irrational and inpatient.

And I am not sure where you get the idea that the Flames are consistently a good team. Take away the 10 gamer last year and the current streak and you see a below average team.

[Jiri Hrdina]

“Apart from fancy stats”
Damn those people with actual supporting facts eh?

And yes take away most teams largest winning streak and their record wouldn’t be great

[Flash Walken]

why would you even respond to this guy?

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Red

...I always asked the pro GG guys why they liked him. And outside of fancy stats we heard crickets. Good possession, sub .500 team in regulation.

It is right there in the post you quoted. I like Gulutzan for how much the team has improved, and looks to still be improving. The Flames are becoming an excellent, vey consistent possession team. I also very much like that when Glen Gulutzan's team is winning after two periods, they do not lose.

And I am not sure where you get the idea that the Flames are consistently a good team. Take away the 10 gamer last year and the current streak and you see a below average team.

Why would we not consider the best parts of the past two seasons in evaluating the coach? I can only think one would choose to do so because they have already formed an opinion and are not open to changing their mind. This is simply manipulating the narrative to suit your conclusion.

As for the playoffs, I think Gulutzan deserves more than four games from which to draw a conclusion. Especially considering that poor goaltending had a huge part in the results. I personally think that the team was much better than the sweep.

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by Red

His reputation is that he coaches teams to sub .500 in regulation record. That was true till the streak.
He is also 0-4 in the playoffs.

I always asked the pro GG guys why they liked him. And outside of fancy stats we heard crickets. Good possession, sub .500 team in regulation. Season and quarter in I said enough, time for a change. So sue me for being irrational and inpatient.

And I am not sure where you get the idea that the Flames are consistently a good team. Take away the 10 gamer last year and the current streak and you see a below average team.

I've been pretty vlcriticalnof GG, but it's not totally fair to take away winning streaks when determining how good a coach is. That said if a team needs a 10 game win streak to sneak into the playoffs then I find it hard to say they are consistently good.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Red

His reputation is that he coaches teams to sub .500 in regulation record. That was true till the streak.
He is also 0-4 in the playoffs.

I always asked the pro GG guys why they liked him. And outside of fancy stats we heard crickets. Good possession, sub .500 team in regulation. Season and quarter in I said enough, time for a change. So sue me for being irrational and inpatient.

And I am not sure where you get the idea that the Flames are consistently a good team. Take away the 10 gamer last year and the current streak and you see a below average team.

Take away their two 4-game losing streaks from last year, and Gulutzan's record is 70-41-8

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by Red

His reputation is that he coaches teams to sub .500 in regulation record. That was true till the streak.
He is also 0-4 in the playoffs.

I always asked the pro GG guys why they liked him. And outside of fancy stats we heard crickets. Good possession, sub .500 team in regulation. Season and quarter in I said enough, time for a change. So sue me for being irrational and inpatient.

And I am not sure where you get the idea that the Flames are consistently a good team. Take away the 10 gamer last year and the current streak and you see a below average team.

Why on earth should we take away these two streaks? Would you be happier if they were shorter? What constitutes a winning streak that you would count?

[Strange Brew]

Treliving’s interview earlier in the week during intermission, maybe Thursday or Friday, his first comment was how the team was consistently inconsistent through the first half.

The guy doesn’t know anything.

[DeluxeMoustache]

^ I thought that was one thing everyone agreed upon.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Infinit47

I've been pretty vlcriticalnof GG, but it's not totally fair to take away winning streaks when determining how good a coach is. That said if a team needs a 10 game win streak to sneak into the playoffs then I find it hard to say they are consistently good.

I think people have strange ideas about how to define "consistency." It is also bizarre to me that some posters would feel better about a team that posts a record of 3W-1L-4W-2L-5W than they do about one with a result of 1L-10W-1L-2W -1L in a stretch of fifteen games.

[Enoch Root]

Fun fact:

The Flames are now the top Canadian team over the last two years (Gulutzan's reign)

1) WAS: 83-33-11
12) SJS: 68-42-13
13) CAL: 70-49-8
14) TOR: 65-44-18
15) EDM: 67-49-12

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Fun fact:

The Flames are now the top Canadian team over the last two years (Gulutzan's reign)

1) WAS: 83-33-11
12) SJS: 68-42-13
13) CAL: 70-49-8
14) TOR: 65-44-18
15) EDM: 67-49-12

He is no Mike Babcock.

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

He is no Mike Babcock.

Man, I know you're a mod but you are getting insufferable.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Man, I know you're a mod but you are getting insufferable.

You really dislike his last comment so much?

[Red]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Fun fact:

The Flames are now the top Canadian team over the last two years (Gulutzan's reign)

1) WAS: 83-33-11
12) SJS: 68-42-13
13) CAL: 70-49-8
14) TOR: 65-44-18
15) EDM: 67-49-12

Kind of a low bar, no?

But interesting to see the oilers in 3rd. A feel good story for Spec.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

^ I thought that was one thing everyone agreed upon.

Almost everyone it would appear.