cross16

I think its necessary to point out that Hanifin - Tanev have legitimately been one of the best d pairings in the NHL this season. Criticism of putting them together is pretty miss placed IMO. I'm pretty surprised that Gio/Andersson pairing hasn't worked out as prior to this year it was a very good pairing when they played together. My thoughts are it's a combination of 2 things, first being Gio is on the decline and not as reliable as he once was but 2nd the overal team game. Andersson is at his best when he is control of the play, leading the play and being front and center. The downside to his style is you need to cover for him and right now the Flames do not support well at all. If I were the coach i would run Valimaki - Andersson hanifin - Tanev Gio - Kyllngton at 5 on 5 and still use Gio as a PK guy. Roll all 3 pairs

I see nothing wrong with what he said personally. This is part of the problem I've had with this analysis and how people view Treliving, it's summed up in this statement right here Why is it when we see that statement we automatically assume that it means big and tough? Or why do we seem to assume it means everywhere on your lineup? Tampa plays this way, are they big? Why is being tough to place against always assumed to be we are going to run you through a wall? to me hard to play against is more about limiting time and space then it is size and physicality. I don't get the criticism that he isn't building this team this way. Way I've looked at building a team is this: (this is mostly stolen from Brian Burke but modified for my own thoughts) Top line - This is your offensive engine. I don't care if your big or small your job is to drive offence but not be a liability defensively. 2nd line Similar to above but you need this line to be two way responsible. Again, don't really care if you are big here. 3rd line - This is where you need to be tight checking, in the opposition face, limit opportunities but still create your own. Should have some size here and the ability to take advantage of physical mismatches, forecheck hard. 4th line - Be physical, not a liability, push the puck the over way. Forecheck hard. D core 1 - Be able to dominate at both ends of the ice, limit possessions against and drive it the other way. Be critical in producing offence. 2nd pair - Very stout in your own end, hard to play against and be able to initiative the counter attack. 3rd pair - Be physical, stout in your own end and over time push the puck the over way more often than not. Should ideally have some size here as to take advantage of physical mis matches and lay the body where you can. Most important though is your have to be smart in your own end. Are the Flames built exactly in this image? no but it's pretty close IMO and I think when you look at the players being drafted it's all done within this model.

Not to activate Markstrom no but probably necessary to keep flexibility with the taxi squad, roster and cap with both Markstrom and Ryan set to come off IR soon. Going to be some shuffling.

I find it very surprised that Ward generally is a "let's throw crap at a wall and see if it sick's" type of coach, but he's basically refused to ever try separating Mony and Johnny. Doesn't make much sense to me.

Agreed. People like to talk about how the modern player is "soft" and has to be babysat and I don't agree, they just want this. They just want clear communication, expectations and rationale behind what is expected of them. They just are not going to go and play and do whatever just for the good of the team, they need to understand it and I see nothing wrong with that. I don't agree with all of what Versteeg said, but the theme is bang on the Flames don't play with enough pace and I do put a lot of that on the coaching staff. It doesn't make much sense either because again you've had situations this season where the Flames did play that way. They were quick to counter attack, they pressured to force plays and they forced the issue and they looked good doing it. Why they've abandoned that i'm not sure ill ever understand.

On the plus side, Markstrom is back at practice so he likely will return soon, if not tomorrow. Likely why Simon is on waivers.

Did it? Their rookie year's were awfully similar especially accounting for 5 on 5 point. Also worth pointing out Draisailt played a whole 20 more CHL games then Bennett did. until he got put with McDavid there were a lot of similarities between the two but Draisaitl kept getting better and then eventually took off, while Bennett flatlined. I've said this before but there is only so much you can learn at the junior level and i'm personally really tried of this argument. The vast majority of the best players in this league spend little time in junior/AHL but yet every time we get a player that doens't turn out to our liking the default is they were "rushed". sometimes players just don't pan out the way you want and it's that simple. i don't like how the Flames developed Bennett but I also think how he turned out is not as a direct result of what the Flames did. Talent almost always floats to the top.

I agree. The way I look at it is the reason the Flames are where they are today is for 2 main reasons. First is Bennett didn't pan out and the 2nd is Johnny/Mony plateaued, Monahan more so than Johnny. Looking back at the 2017 playoffs against Anaheim, Monahan had a great series and looked poised to be at least a 1B center and Bennent was still growing. Faster forward 4 years and Bennett is expansion fodder and Monahan's slipped to maybe a 2A center. It's hard for me to blame that on Treliving. He's not without mistakes yes and for sure I wish they didn't make the Hamonic trade, didn't sign Brouwer or Neal but even if you erase all of those i'm not sure I buy that they'd be that much further ahead because ultimately it's the current core letting him down. his drafting and developing is very good and it's the primary reason I'd keep him but i get the other side too. My 2 outs on Treliving are this: 1 - What is the truth on the coaching situation. If he picked Ward and was not constrained at all by budget than I think this is a fire able offence. Overall I think the beef on his coaching hires is not completely fair. When I look at who was available when he hired Gulutzan the only one that sticks out to me is Jared Bednar, but outside of that it's not really like they "missed" on someone else. I would also ask what type of background he did on Peters (not in specific to the Akim Aliu situation but more around the kicking of players etc) 2- What is the mandate from owners and how involved? You heard stories about them vetoing deals is their truth to that? Does he have the ability to make changes on a year to eyar basis if he wants or do owners say it's playoffs or bust? Depending on what the answer is to those 2 questions could make me change my opinion on him.

yes there is no question Ward and the coaching staff could make many adjustments to this team (probably easier to just get a new coach but that's a different argument) and I think they would be in much better shape. I am still of the opinion that this is a very talented team and they should be much better this year, I put the bulk of that blame on Ward. The Flames need to activate dmen off the rush so it allows them to use hitch plays or weak side passes, increase their carry in % and dump their d zone coverage in favor of more zone. All of those things would help but this is what it boils down to for me. Are we content with getting a new coach to fix the x/os, scheme and recover so they can maybe win a round or 2 in the playoffs? Or do we take a step back and start to ask ourselves what is the problem, who is the problem and how do we fix it? I'm in the later.

I think i've made it pretty well known here my feelings on Geoff Ward. I think he is a very poor head coach and there is quite a bit of blame his way for this season. That being said, at the same time the purpose of this post was to point out that 4 years later we are seeing the same theme so it prompts the question of how much coaching is to blame. Is it the coaches responsibility to have players emotionally ready to play? Not IMO Is it the coaches fault that once one bad things happens to this club they seem to fold? Not IMO Is it the coaches fault that this team cannot understand simple situational awareness (ie Milan Lucic don't dump soft backhand pass in the neutral zone) ? Not IMO Is it the coaches job this team likes to put passes in guys feet? Not IMO. There is a lot a coach fan fix yes in terms of systems, deployment, schemes etc. Ward is failing bad in all of those areas but I'm not sure that's really the crux of the issue and for he can't solve what is really the problem.

I think we put too much focus on coaching and management like they can control every outcome. The product sucks this year but who is making the passes? who is making the decisions on the ice? Is Ward/Treliving the ones telling them to only play when it's easy, turn pucks over in the neutral zone? Fire blind passes every which way? This isn't me advocating for anyone to keep their job. Everyone has their own reasons to fire/keep someone and to each their own. I'm past the point of even caring who gets fired because that all comes down to appeasement anyway. Firing Ward right now, or even Treliving for that matter, is just going to appease the fans and provide a short term boost. Time to get to the root of the issue and hold the players accountable. Here are 2 rants, 1 is post game yesterday from Milan Lucic and the other is Glen Gulutzan in a post game rant over 4 years ago in Montreal. Listen to them and see how similar they are. The players have made their bed, time for them to lie in it and take whatever comes their way.

NM

Treliving already went public before this road trip and I thought made it pretty clear he wasn't happy. Team followed it up with that road trip so I question what Treliving can really say at this point. Would be better served telling the players directly if he hasn't already. I'm starting to believe that the Flames are not going to do anything and that is by design. This management team was pretty vocal pre playoffs, and honestly post, that if this core didn't get it done it would be the end of the line for them. I am of the belief that they have tried hard to change up their core but the impact of covid and the shrinking cap likely made it very challenging to do that. so the alternative is give them a coach they wanted (and reports are the players wanted to see Ward stay) tell them it's all on them and if they don't get it done no more bailouts. It's a shortened season with revenues already suffering so no consequences there and the hope being that next off season more opportunities to change things come up with, or after the expansion draft.

This is very likely procedural and will allow the Flames to continue to shuffle Ryan to the taxi squad to save money. however, this means Ryan is close and probably going to return this week. Will likely mean some re assignments tomorrow once he clears.

Honestly, IMO the farm is in really good shape. D is questionable yes but let’s also point out that the flames are really young on D at the NHL level too. The Heat are 3 good lines deep and the best part is they are stacked with legit NHL prospects and they don’t stack their team with AHL vets. I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve seen on the Heat so far. Phillips should really be with the Flames and Ruzicka is starting to make a case too. Is there a star down there no but teams sitting on stars in the AHL is pretty rare. I'm also really liking what I’m seeing and hearing from Cail Maclean. It looks like the Heat have a real solid coaching staff.

This is how I approach coaching too. A select few with elevate a team, a select few will sink a team and the vast majority are going to get you to where your going to go. I was listening to a podcast once and the analogy used, believe it was Angles Manager Joe Maddon who said it, was its similar to a pilot. Auto pilot is going to get that plane to the destination and the pilot just determines how quick or smooth that ride is. For me coaching in hockey is very similar I agree that the flames generally hire in the middle and unfortunately in the case of Ward they have one of the select few who will sink a team. I don’t think coaching is as a big an issue here for the organization as some. The bigger problem is why we are here today is the core they banked on, in particular Gaudreau,Monahan, Lindholm, Bennett just didn’t take the steps you were hoping for.

Sad, but very true statement. In this short season this might be the way to go.

To be clear I am not advocating for re build nor do I think one will happen. The idea of blowing it up and trading everyone does not make sense to me especially considering that odds are you are going to wind up right back in the same place. I am in favor of adding more high end talent to the organization and I am in favor of fixing center ice and finding an impact center. if you can do that via trade, awesome but i'm very skeptical you can. You likely need to fix that via the draft so the Flames should take advantage of what is a unique opportunity, short season with no fans/playoff revenue, to try and add those pieces. Even better if they can pick up an addition 1st or a few picks at the TDL and really inject this organization with some talent. Could turn this into an asset rich organization which gives a significantly better foundation to move forward off of.

To me it sounds more like we had a month to evaluate the COVID impact on the bottom line and decide how much $ they were willing to pay a coach and how much Ward was willing to take as a head coach (versus another options). All it takes is one phone call to the agent of another coach to know what their price tag is going to be. The announcement of Ward as the head coach also came out shortly after the organization cut pay by 20% (or something like that). I could be wrong, but that's where reading the tea leaves has always led me.

Yup. Not only did he pass him over then, he had an opportunity to make him the permanent coach right after Peters and made him interim. Had a opportunity to take that interim tag off prior the play in (an honestly it probably would have gone over fine at the time) but didn't. Then he took a month to name him the permanent coach after the Flames lost to Dallas. Doesn't feel like a decision making process you go through for a person you really believe in.

Confirmation bias is a funny thing for people who just want to troll and get responses.

Wolf was excellent. He tracks the puck so well that even his big saves look effortless. He's very Kipper like in that regard. Not saying he is Kipper good it's just who he reminded me of watching him move. I tuned in for the 2nd and I thought the Heat were looking excellent. Good structure, great puck movement, air tight D. I was really impressed. It unraveled quite a bit in the 3rd but I do wonder if they just don't have their legs yet. It is a young team so this is also to be expected. I think much of the team is still finding their way. The veteran guys stood out a bit more for me especially Phillips. Really small sample size but i'd be keeping a close eye on him if I were Calgary I think he could help here. I liked a lot of what I saw from Ruzicka but i wish he was a little more faster and more engaged. He makes an impact, that was a killer shot on the last goal, but there are warts there. Rookies all had flashes, including Peterson, but I also think they all have a ways to go. Only thing that stood out to me is i think the D are going to hold the Heat back. It's not a very mobile group and they really struggled with some breakout passes/moving up the ice. Not surprising given the makeup but it's something the coaching staff is really going to have to account for.

I don't, I've just never been impressed with Julien as a coach. The Montreal record is one thing but he missed the playoffs back to back years in Boston and Boston has been a power in the East after they let him go with little in the way of personnel changes. As I said i was surprised by the news because I don't think Montreal's talent level is that great so I'm not sure he deserved this but at the same time many local writers and people I respect are not questioning it. I'm just saying I don't personally view him as a high end coach. I feel he is very rigid in what he wants to do, makes pretty questionable decisions with players and utilization, and his special teams are often not great. He won a cup yes, but in a pretty different era. I don't think he's as strong a coach in this era and for me I would not want to see him brought in as I don't think he would fix anything here.

Kris Versteeg with some interesting comments on Ward this morning. Feels he is holding the team back and talks about many of the same gripes many of us have. Bad breakouts, passive systems, poor utilization etc. Also mentions he's a big believer in the players in that room. Starts at about the 11 minute mark. https://www.sportsnet.ca/960/boomer-morning/kris-versteeg-talks-canadiens-coaching-change-flames/

This is all fair and I was aware of Boudreau comment's around Seattle as this is always a two way street. Coach has to be interested in being here and I can't comment on that. I don't believe firing Ward is going to be an option for the Flames so I don't expect anything to happen but if I'm wrong Boudreau is the only option I'd entertain. I've always liked Gallant from a far but the fact that he is getting passed over for jobs is making me think there may be something there we are not aware of.