travel_dude

Isn't it more like you fire a coach after a win and he manages to still not get to the playoffs. Followed by a year of uptick. Followed by a year of failure? In every coach hired and fired there is a common theme. Coach pushes the team to win. They win and then fail in the playoffs for a variety of reasons. Coach decides that he needs to push more the start of the next season. Or changes from things that worked.

I would hazard a guess that several players do not like playing this brand of hockey or for this coach. It's taxing on the body, especially if you constantly have to defend one goal games. We have a couple of players that love playing for the coach, and two (hopefully) never come back. We have players that said they love playing in the city, but I doubt that's a coaching thing. Then we have a bunch that either don't like the game plan, the coach or the strategy. When it works, players are less critical. When they decide their future, they consider it.

I agree that the coaching staff needs to be looked at. I'm not sure how the same group that allowed the situation to fester over the last 2 years can be expected to make a decent assessment. Is the former VP now POHO and acting GM capable of deciding this? Bean has already come out and made comments about his reasons why we failed. Shouldn't a new GM have the opportunity to name their head coach and assistants? After the fact, Sutter is going to nod his head and say, gee I could have done this better. Not like he really believes it. Nor do I think his inability to self assess a reason to fire him. The reason you fire a coach is that you believe that he was in part responsible for the team's failure. You move on because you know or believe that he won't be different the next year or he doesn't match what you need from a coach. We saw a year of 111 points and our first playoff victory, then follow that up with a complete failure in round 2, to a falling off the map in most categories and 93 points. We saw a capped out team use players on the 18th green of their careers being used instead of guys on the 1st hole. We saw them use the Billy Barue of goalies instead of just tappy tap tapping it in the hole. Sorry for the Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore references, but the Flames are in the golf season now. So here we are. No GM and an owner rep talking about their beliefs without even doing a deep dive on the future or failure of the team. Bean says he wants to see the Vezna goalie come back. Haven't even gone through analysis to see if the goalie was the problem and he is regressing to the point of another year of failure. Bean suggests that we had a good team. Maybe, but how good? 3 wins out of the playoffs good or win a round or win the cup good?

Don't worry, you managed to backhanded slap Sutter in the face. All good.

My only real argument is that Huska went this route. Had a good run on the Heat as head coach, then went to the Flames. Unfortunately, we saw that the reversal was to not promote from within and to hire Sutter. What I might think would work is for a new bench boss be hired (after firing Sutter) and he decides to bring in Love. But in this climate, does that even happen now? I think Sutter hired Muller, but the rest were seemingly the GM. The owners need to give a coach the freedom to pick their staff. None of that is likely going to happen now.

I don't think this impacts CSEC looking to build an arena. I don't think the current climate allows for a woman-of-the-people mayor to spend tax dollars on entertainment. The only reason why this isn't just cancelled and the Flames told to pay for the whole thing is the employment aspect. As a major player and the potential for spin off employment and building, the mayor may view this as an investment though. If she can figure out how to pay for this, while at the same time providing supports for the less fortunate, it will get done. I think it's still locked up in that idea of finding a partner to share the costs. Naming rights is the obvious one, but that's more after it's under construction. I don't know that you can justify investment unless the profit is there.

Look, we are looking for a new GM. What GM wants to just be stuck with a coaching staff, regardless of whether they played a big part in failure or not. The GM needs the freedom to hire and fire coaches. They normally have "their guy(s)" they want, so that they ensure success. Anything else is a complete failure by the team.

So, are you suggesting we first promote Huska to head coach and promote Love to A/Coach? I had suggested promoting Love to NHL A/coach but Cross suggested this may be more of a downgrade, to go from AHL head coach to NHL A/coach (having little say). Love is the resume that gets you an offer from a NHL team looking to make a big change.

They talked in the media like we could have EDM facing either TOR or BOS in the finals. Lesser homers say that the last EDM-COL game could be a preview to the West final. This is why you have to win 16. Already the multiple flags flying on car and greaser trucks. And does it have to be orage? Orange flags, orange jerseys, orange mascot. They don't even use that jersey anymore. At least it made for a quiet Monday night after the game.

I don't know that you will see the epic game 2 and 3 collapse from LA that you did last year. No Quick. I liked the intensity. EDM seems to think they are a tough team now. Really they have a couple of bigger guys but really no tougher than last year. They manage to get away with using the pick. I would say that the Oilers took undisciplined penalties, while LA got away with marginal missed calls. Bouchard cost them the victory. Well, if Connor doesn't score, they don't often win.

This so far is a repeat of last year. Oilers lost game 1. Could go to 7 games.

I may have actually got mixed up in what I was trying to say. What I was thinking was that Bean started talking about the goalie like he was safe, and that the team was fine, just didn't perform. Making comments like that about the goalie takes the wind out of any GM coming in. And what exactly does that mean about the team not performing? Is that some kind of revelation? Bottom 5 goaltending, drop off of 40 goals, and bottom 1/3 PP. Seems pretty obvious. And what if the "analysis" shows it's goaltending or that coaching played the biggest part to the loss? You just finished pumping the goalie and giving the coach an extension.

I guess he isn't used to ever wearing a suit and tie. In such an important moment for the Flames organization, he showed up like.... Like he was busy getting his tires changed over and showed up. If this is the face of the owners, they might want to get a face lift.

Count me as surprised that the Kings win in OT. Oilers got a long 5-3 PP to make it 2-0. Kings get back to 2-1, then fall to 3-1. Kings press and het back to 3-2. Dumb-arse Bouchard cross checks with just around 2:14 left. Kings pull the goalie and tie it with 16 seconds left. In OT, Deharnais takes a penalty for no good reason. Kings score on it. Suck it Oilers.

If Bean is yapping already about things that should be evaluated first, then there isn't much hope the POHO will get much of a chance to do anything actually productive.

What exactly does he "get". He gets that it doesn't matter what the thought process is, that there is no possibility the Flames rebuild. He gets that you need to take a hard look at player, then says he will be glad to see Vezna level goalie back next season. Look at analytics, but "we have a great team". Classy guy, shows up in a golf shirt with a sweater over it. Can't afford a suit?

I would call this season the year we made the playoffs and lost in round one. Next season will be the regression. We cycle up and down every year. This was not really the cycle down, so we skipped the year.

I know you were joking. He isn't allowed to even make the suggestion. I wouldn't even call it a 2nd half surge. We were in the playoffs as of American Thanksgiving. We sulumpred and wion some, bit mostly played 500 hockey from that point onward. What did we have two three game streaks in 2023? The only reason we even came close was 6-2-2 in the last 10 games. ANd that only made it seem close because WPG and NAS couldn't close.

Sutter thinks he is the captain, coach and GM. Who exactly will ever get it? Markstrom? Tanev? Backlund won't stick around for that.

At the very least, he should be brought up to the Flames as an A/coach. He understands the AHL players, which we seem to have lost over time. Huska was that guy, but his days may be numbers. Besides that, he hasn't had anything to do with the Heat/Wranglers in years.

Just need a GM that isn't out in left field doing other things. Like looking for a GM.

So, it's down to Sutter vs. half the team and the GM. GM gone. Bean won't allow a rebuild. Already suggesting that Markstrom will be back, even though he said they need to look at everything. What a mess.

So, 75% of the goals were scored outside the slot in my estimation. You can blame not clearing out the crease on some of those goals (deflections/screens). But how many goals from the circles have been clear looks for the goalie(s). Goaltending sucked this year. Last year we had Guddy to clear out the front. He was on the ice for 1/4 of the total ice time of the D. Our PK was top 10 this year, so I think that's implying we did a good job there.

Modern ideas BT was hamstrung to get away from Burke hockey and the owners tied his hands making decisions. BT brought in modern analytics to this team. Sutter is about as old school as you can get, ranks up there with Muller on the PP. Fresh - that's funny since it was the coaching decisions to not play fresh player but rely on the vet leadership. If we are performing surgery, which I doubt, then need to remove the abscess. The coaching failed. No matter if you consider the players underperformed or not, the coaching was unable to get enough out of the team. That is a major fail. Most teams start with the coach and GM. They don't just hang it on the GM.