Calgary Flames Coach Ranking #9

[Bingo]

1. Darryl Sutter
2. Bob Johnson
3. Terry Crisp
4. Bob Hartley
5. Dave King
6. Al MacNeill
7. Mike Keenan
8. Brian Sutter

[Strange Brew]

Voting anyone but Peters now.

[agulati]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Voting anyone but Peters now.

Exactly. I’m not going to vote for Peters. Brent Sutter gets my vote this round once again.

[Flashpoint]

Probably going with Ward at this point. It’s a half season, but it counts.

Won’t be voting for Peters at any point. I understand others who can detach his conduct from his coaching, but not me.

[rogermexico]

I'm with the folks who can't vote Peters. And I'm a Brent Sutter detractor too. I just feel like a lot of the way that team imploded had to do with his inability to understand the players that he had and make proper use of them.
So that leaves... ugh, what does that even leave?

[mrdonkey]

Definitely in the "hold your nose" part of the process now.

[foofighter15]

I can't vote Peters, but not just because of the reasons for his firing, but because I've felt since all that information came out that he is the reason we struggled post All-Star break. No inside info or anything of the sort to base it off.....but I've had a hunch he lost the locker room which lead us to the embarrassing first round we had, and subpar start to the season this year.

Whether I'm right or not he was also the coach who couldn't get a Conference winning team out of the first round, or make the necessary adjustments to get past, or even keep it close against Colorado

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by foofighter15

...Whether I'm right or not he was also the coach who couldn't get a Conference winning team out of the first round, or make the necessary adjustments to get past, or even keep it close against Colorado

While I generally agree with you, this last clause is just a gross exaggeration. Two of Colorado's wins in that series came in overtime, in games in which they trailed and forced a fourth period in the final few minutes of regulation.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

While I generally agree with you, this last clause is just a gross exaggeration. Two of Colorado's wins in that series came in overtime, in games in which they trailed and forced a fourth period in the final few minutes of regulation.

Individual games were close, but overall a 4-1 series loss isn't very close.

[mikephoen]

I'm surprised at how few votes Ward is getting at this point. I'm personally not really a big fan, but his win/loss record so far is really good, even if there is a very limited sample size.

[foofighter15]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

While I generally agree with you, this last clause is just a gross exaggeration. Two of Colorado's wins in that series came in overtime, in games in which they trailed and forced a fourth period in the final few minutes of regulation.

I was thinking about that as I typed it up, but I remember at the time thinking how we may have forced overtime but the way the games played out we were lucky to do so. Mind you I have repressed the memory of that series as best as I can and may be misremembering

[Red_Baron]

How can anyone vote for Brent Sutter?
He inherited a good team in 2009-2010 and failed to make the playoffs for 3 straight years! He belongs in the conversation for worst coach of all time.

Jim Playfair at least made the playoffs.

[savardandjokinen]

Originally Posted by Red_Baron

How can anyone vote for Brent Sutter?
He inherited a good team in 2009-2010 and failed to make the playoffs for 3 straight years! He belongs in the conversation for worst coach of all time.

Jim Playfair at least made the playoffs.

I was going to say the same thing. Brent Sutter was a huge reason the 09-10 season sucked and Darryl had to make a lot of changes.

Guys like Playfair, Page, etc made the playoffs at least once

[agulati]

Playfair made the playoffs in the only season he coached, and I’ll probably be voting for him in the next round (Followed by Geoff Ward). I wish he had gotten a longer look as a head coach in Calgary,.

[You Need a Thneed]

Voted Playfair.

1/1 in making the playoffs.

Amazing Home record (somehow terrible road record).

Iginla's best season post lockout.

[Scroopy Noopers]

My next two picks are:
Playfair (responsible for one of the wildest message sending plays I’ve ever seen in the playoffs)
Ward

[TheScorpion]

I'd sooner vote for Gully than Brent.

[Erick Estrada]

Not sure why Brent Sutter gets so much hate. He broke the 90 point plateau in all three seasons and IMO those rosters were a clear step down from the 2006-2009 teams. Any team that was relying on Jokinen, Bourque and Glencross in as top 4 forwards was not a good team. Also he had to deal with the Phaneuf situation and poor return, Bouwmeester not fitting in, and his brother kind of losing it as a GM. Roster was kind of a mess IMO and while he maybe didn't get them to overachieve I feel he got them to where they were in regards to overall talent.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

Individual games were close, but overall a 4-1 series loss isn't very close.

And only the scores were close in those games, not the play. Treliving said it well, it took a "Herculean" effort from Mike Smith to keep the individual game scores close.

Now I don't put it all on coaching. The Flames had a much superior regular season record but by the playoffs started, I don't see that we necessarily had a talent edge. This regular season seems to bear that out.

[Press Level]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

I'm surprised at how few votes Ward is getting at this point. I'm personally not really a big fan, but his win/loss record so far is really good, even if there is a very limited sample size.

Part of one season and zero playoff games coached so far. He won't finish last (nor should he), but there are coaches on this list who have coached multiple seasons and have made play-off appearances. They will get my vote ahead of Ward.