Glen Gulutzan-16th Flames Coach

[cross16]

Depends on what the catastrophe is too. If the Flames have a season full of injuries and bad luck, which is possible, and miss the playoffs it could easily be considered a knee jerk reaction to penalize the coach/GM for it. I get the point about the ownership and it's a valid fear because this ownership group isn't the greatest and has made more than their fair share of snap/poor decisions over the years but I think it would be a poor one to overreact to 1 bad season but again depends on what constitutes "bad"

 

A lot would have to go bad though for me to support firing Treliving. Probably would take a combination of things that no teams has really seen in recent memory so I don't think it's likely and would probably be in a similar camp with Gulutzan. Consistently turning over your coach and your GM when both have shown promise is never going to win you anything in pro sports. 

 

 

[rickross]

3 hours ago, cross16 said:

Depends on what the catastrophe is too. If the Flames have a season full of injuries and bad luck, which is possible, and miss the playoffs it could easily be considered a knee jerk reaction to penalize the coach/GM for it. I get the point about the ownership and it's a valid fear because this ownership group isn't the greatest and has made more than their fair share of snap/poor decisions over the years but I think it would be a poor one to overreact to 1 bad season but again depends on what constitutes "bad"

 

A lot would have to go bad though for me to support firing Treliving. Probably would take a combination of things that no teams has really seen in recent memory so I don't think it's likely and would probably be in a similar camp with Gulutzan. Consistently turning over your coach and your GM when both have shown promise is never going to win you anything in pro sports. 

 

 

I think BT can run through 1 more coach if GG doesn't pan out before his job security comes into question. GG has to find a way to atleast win a playoff round this season before questions start to swirl around his security. I really hope the Flames don't become a coaching carousel in the next few years, hopefully GG can elevate this team and solidify us as true contenders for the next couple of years. 

[AlbertaBoy12]

1 hour ago, rickross said:

I think BT can run through 1 more coach if GG doesn't pan out before his job security comes into question. GG has to find a way to atleast win a playoff round this season before questions start to swirl around his security. I really hope the Flames don't become a coaching carousel in the next few years, hopefully GG can elevate this team and solidify us as true contenders for the next couple of years. 

I would assume even if the flames had a first round exit this season(which I highly doubt), that he would get one more season next year to see how it goes. But if the flames have a 4 and out series again, then things might be questioned but at the same time 7 and out in a hard fought series not much you can do sometimes in the playoffs.

 

Lets be honest though GG has turned this team around in a big way if you ask me, and im assuming it can only be better with more time in training camp with top players/a better team overall. 

[rickross]

I think one thing that became apparent was their struggle to score 1st. They spent quite a bit of time chasing leads last season, they'd panicked a bit and started to play outside the system(s) in an effort to get back in games. Once they found the believe in their game and trusted the system they were clearly more effective. They were forcing more turnovers or could climb out of a hole with more consistency. They played very well and closed out games rather effectively when they lead after the 2nd period. GG just needs to instil that trust in his game plan and have them play with more structure on a consistent basis. I think they stand a good chance of having a winning % in October if they can avoid deviating from their game when things are going their way. 

[robrob74]

On 2017-08-15 at 2:28 PM, AlbertaBoy12 said:

I would assume even if the flames had a first round exit this season(which I highly doubt), that he would get one more season next year to see how it goes. But if the flames have a 4 and out series again, then things might be questioned but at the same time 7 and out in a hard fought series not much you can do sometimes in the playoffs.

 

Lets be honest though GG has turned this team around in a big way if you ask me, and im assuming it can only be better with more time in training camp with top players/a better team overall. 

 

I don't know, but I think that he'd get another shot if we still had a first round exit. 

 

Like you said, the team looks completely different systems-wise.  We are a lot better than when Hartley coached. Hartleys' system was high reward more risk. So it was quite a roller coaster. The team had to learn how to play hockey in the NHL, as Hartley seemed to ruin their development. Players had success, but they really struggled under structure (to start).

[conundrumed]

21 minutes ago, robrob74 said:

 

I don't know, but I think that he'd get another shot if we still had a first round exit. 

 

Like you said, the team looks completely different systems-wise.  We are a lot better than when Hartley coached. Hartleys' system was high reward more risk. So it was quite a roller coaster. The team had to learn how to play hockey in the NHL, as Hartley seemed to ruin their development. Players had success, but they really struggled under structure (to start).

A lot of our players had their best seasons so far under Hartley. Let's stop beating a dead horse. You have to give Hartley some credit. Did we even have a clue what Ferland can be prior to that Van series? He got the most out of us, Gio was on his way to a Norris. When he got injured, EVERYBODY wrote us off.

Brodie broke out. If you consider what Hartley did for positives, they out weigh the negatives. He had a bunch of kids. He even referred to the locker room as Romper Room.

We have to thank him for making a bunch of kids feel the pressure and expectations. He made our core, for sure.

We should stop focusing on what he didn't do, because he did a lot for a lot of our players.

Wideman was actually motivated under Hartley, seems like an impossibility now, for example.

He was a run-and-gun coach. He lived by it and died by it.

Created a ton of excitement for the fans, and moved JG-Mony-Bennett-Gio-Brodie-Wideman-Engelland to be a hard team. How many comebacks?

I don't regret Hartley at all. ARI should have hired him for all of the young going on there.

 

 

[robrob74]

2 hours ago, conundrumed said:

A lot of our players had their best seasons so far under Hartley. Let's stop beating a dead horse. You have to give Hartley some credit. Did we even have a clue what Ferland can be prior to that Van series? He got the most out of us, Gio was on his way to a Norris. When he got injured, EVERYBODY wrote us off.

Brodie broke out. If you consider what Hartley did for positives, they out weigh the negatives. He had a bunch of kids. He even referred to the locker room as Romper Room.

We have to thank him for making a bunch of kids feel the pressure and expectations. He made our core, for sure.

We should stop focusing on what he didn't do, because he did a lot for a lot of our players.

Wideman was actually motivated under Hartley, seems like an impossibility now, for example.

He was a run-and-gun coach. He lived by it and died by it.

Created a ton of excitement for the fans, and moved JG-Mony-Bennett-Gio-Brodie-Wideman-Engelland to be a hard team. How many comebacks?

I don't regret Hartley at all. ARI should have hired him for all of the young going on there.

 

 

 

You didn't read the part about players having success under Hartley. Offensively yes, but once GG put a possession oriented system in place they struggled to adapt, which is why we had a slow start.

[rickross]

I still think GG is a really good coach but I haven't seen anything to believe he's THE coach that will take this team to that next level. If the mandate is to win now the Flames could win a lot of games under his watch however I don't feel he's the one to win it all. 

[MAC331]

1 hour ago, rickross said:

I still think GG is a really good coach but I haven't seen anything to believe he's THE coach that will take this team to that next level. If the mandate is to win now the Flames could win a lot of games under his watch however I don't feel he's the one to win it all. 

What makes you say this ? maybe you should elaborate on why you think he is not THE one.

[AlbertaBoy12]

3 hours ago, rickross said:

I still think GG is a really good coach but I haven't seen anything to believe he's THE coach that will take this team to that next level. If the mandate is to win now the Flames could win a lot of games under his watch however I don't feel he's the one to win it all. 

Wow one game into a new season and we are back on this again.

[redfire11]

1 hour ago, MAC331 said:

What makes you say this ? maybe you should elaborate on why you think he is not THE one.

This is what I said in the game thread and will elaborate.

We were not even close to being prepared for this game and GG was thoroughly out coached.  He couldn't figure out how to match a line McLellan completely had his way with him. GG knew coming in he was up against one of the best players in the game and had no game plan to deal with him. In the playoffs last year you saw how ANA completely took McDavid out of the play and how OTT completely took Crosby out of the play. McDavid was floating around like he was the only one out there.

 First game YES but if we want to succeed this year Everyone needs to be better prepared and GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants". 

"GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants"  GG needs to make the tough decisions we all know what they are. GG said we didn't work hard enough he should have said I didn't work hard enough. You could see there was no Direction or Assignments it was like he just said "go out there and play hard". Now think how Babcock, Bowman, or Torts would have prepared this team for that game.

1) Every one of our lines should have had an assigned synchronized skater on McDavid (Ferland, Tktchuk, Brouwer, Glass).

It's not a matter of just going out and working hard. You first have to play smart  and then play hard within your abilities. We don't have a superstar but neither does NSH or OTT. 

[AlbertaBoy12]

6 minutes ago, redfire11 said:

This is what I said in the game thread and will elaborate.

We were not even close to being prepared for this game and GG was thoroughly out coached.  He couldn't figure out how to match a line McLellan completely had his way with him. GG knew coming in he was up against one of the best players in the game and had no game plan to deal with him. In the playoffs last year you saw how ANA completely took McDavid out of the play and how OTT completely took Crosby out of the play. McDavid was floating around like he was the only one out there.

 First game YES but if we want to succeed this year Everyone needs to be better prepared and GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants". 

"GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants"  GG needs to make the tough decisions we all know what they are. GG said we didn't work hard enough he should have said I didn't work hard enough. You could see there was no Direction or Assignments it was like he just said "go out there and play hard". Now think how Babcock, Bowman, or Torts would have prepared this team for that game.

1) Every one of our lines should have had an assigned synchronized skater on McDavid (Ferland, Tktchuk, Brouwer, Glass).

 

well playoffs is alot different then regular season, but I dont think the plays where mcdavid took advantage there was much you could do. I thought the flames looked very well prepared just couldnt get the offence going, those things happen. The defence for the most part was very solid with shots coming from the outside or easy for smith to see. There was some issues for sure, and those get ironed out, but the mcdavid line won that game.

[JTech780]

The Flames were only outplayed by McDavid, and he is going to do that to most teams in the NHL for a long long time. The rest of the Oilers were just ok. I am not saying we played good, but we didn't get outplayed dramatically by the Oilers last night.

 

No team in the league is stopping that 2nd goal, Brodie is probably our best skater on the team and he looked like was skating in quicksand compared to McDavid. 

 

Brouwer was directly responsible for the other two goals.

[rickross]

20 minutes ago, redfire11 said:

This is what I said in the game thread and will elaborate.

We were not even close to being prepared for this game and GG was thoroughly out coached.  He couldn't figure out how to match a line McLellan completely had his way with him. GG knew coming in he was up against one of the best players in the game and had no game plan to deal with him. In the playoffs last year you saw how ANA completely took McDavid out of the play and how OTT completely took Crosby out of the play. McDavid was floating around like he was the only one out there.

 First game YES but if we want to succeed this year Everyone needs to be better prepared and GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants". 

"GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants"  GG needs to make the tough decisions we all know what they are. GG said we didn't work hard enough he should have said I didn't work hard enough. You could see there was no Direction or Assignments it was like he just said "go out there and play hard". Now think how Babcock, Bowman, or Torts would have prepared this team for that game.

1) Every one of our lines should have had an assigned synchronized skater on McDavid (Ferland, Tktchuk, Brouwer, Glass).

It's not a matter of just going out and working hard. You first have to play smart  and then play hard within your abilities. We don't have a superstar but neither does NSH or OTT. 

Kind thanks Redfire, I have no idea why it hasn't been crystal clear of this coaching staffs shortcomings. It is only 1 game but the optics were clear yesterday, Edmonton played outplayed us in almost every way, they played a better structured game and kept the Flames on their heels the entire game. I never said GG was a bad coach, I just haven't seen anything from him yet that instills confidence that he's THE coach to get it done. It's getting harder to trust his ability to take this team to the next level, sure they played well over some stretches but ultimately the Flames have been very inconsistent. They continue to struggle to score and our defense has been middling overall. Flames were supposed to be ready for the playoffs and got swept, yesterday he had a plan to contain McDavid and he scores a hat trick. So far GG has said a lot of the right things but failed to translate them onto the ice. Last year he berated his team in a public platform to evoke a response, that's not the sign of a savvy coach, that's the sign of a desperate coach. Sure it started a 10 game streak but Flames struggled to find that form after the streak and limped into the playoffs.  Redfire mentioned how a coach like Babcock has completely changed the culture and style of play of this team and look at how the Leafs have fared, they are a completely different product on the ice. Those players have truly bought into his philosophy and it shows. Again I'm not saying the Flames won't find success under GG but I'm not convinced it's enough to push us from simply playoff contenders to Cup finals contenders. 

[AlbertaBoy12]

10 minutes ago, rickross said:

Kind thanks Redfire, I have no idea why it hasn't been crystal clear of this coaching staffs shortcomings. It is only 1 game but the optics were clear yesterday, Edmonton played outplayed us in almost every way, they played a better structured game and kept the Flames on their heels the entire game. I never said GG was a bad coach, I just haven't seen anything from him yet that instills confidence that he's THE coach to get it done. It's getting harder to trust his ability to take this team to the next level, sure they played well over some stretches but ultimately the Flames have been very inconsistent. They continue to struggle to score and our defense has been middling overall. Flames were supposed to be ready for the playoffs and got swept, yesterday he had a plan to contain McDavid and he scores a hat trick. So far GG has said a lot of the right things but failed to translate them onto the ice. Last year he berated his team in a public platform to evoke a response, that's not the sign of a savvy coach, that's the sign of a desperate coach. Sure it started a 10 game streak but Flames struggled to find that form after the streak and limped into the playoffs.  Redfire mentioned how a coach like Babcock has completely changed the culture and style of play of this team and look at how the Leafs have fared, they are a completely different product on the ice. Those players have truly bought into his philosophy and it shows. Again I'm not saying the Flames won't find success under GG but I'm not convinced it's enough to push us from simply playoff contenders to Cup finals contenders. 

hmm how bout the fact that we were a top 5 team in the league last year in terms of points after a horrible start. how bout taking the worst pp in the league to top 10 or the worst pk to #12. He improved the teams corsi for by 3%. These are all signs of a very good coach and someone who should be trusted with this team. Oh and he did alot of good with very inconsistent goaltending, should be interesting to see what we can do with consistent goaltending.

 

Im sorry but you want to mention babcock in a change of style, but if you dont see the difference between GG and BH you should go watch some of those games. Also you bring up him berating the team in public, but oddly after that they were very good until the last stretch in california at the end of the season.

[rickross]

41 minutes ago, AlbertaBoy12 said:

well playoffs is alot different then regular season, but I dont think the plays where mcdavid took advantage there was much you could do. I thought the flames looked very well prepared just couldnt get the offence going, those things happen. The defence for the most part was very solid with shots coming from the outside or easy for smith to see. There was some issues for sure, and those get ironed out, but the mcdavid line won that game.

Oilers got 44 shots on net and you think that's solid D play by the Flames? Oilers allowed us 26 shots. We're supposed to have one of the best D corps in the NHL but yet they got outplayed by guys like Matt Benning, Darnell Nurse and Kris Russell. Imagine what McClellan would have done if he had the personnel of our top 4. The Oilers played a better defensive structured game with less talent but with greater results.  That's the sign of good coaching. It's one thing to make the playoffs and it's another to win in the playoffs. GG can surely get us to the playoffs but I've yet to see us win a series let alone 1 playoff game under him. I'm not saying he can't do it but he has much to prove in that respect. It's game 1, I'm not calling for GG to be fired yet but if the mandate is to win now I'm more of a skeptic at this point in his tenure. Like I mentioned above, the optics of a coach saying how well prepared their game plan to contain McDavid is only to have him score a hat trick on you looks bad. When your goalie is by far your best player in a losing effort, its never a good thing. Also the Flames inability to create offence is getting old, it was a problem last year and looks to be a problem again this year, this obviously isn't just a 1 game issue. Monny had our best chance to score yesterday, think the Oilers had more than 17 quality chances. 

[MAC331]

2 hours ago, redfire11 said:

This is what I said in the game thread and will elaborate.

We were not even close to being prepared for this game and GG was thoroughly out coached.  He couldn't figure out how to match a line McLellan completely had his way with him. GG knew coming in he was up against one of the best players in the game and had no game plan to deal with him. In the playoffs last year you saw how ANA completely took McDavid out of the play and how OTT completely took Crosby out of the play. McDavid was floating around like he was the only one out there.

 First game YES but if we want to succeed this year Everyone needs to be better prepared and GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants". 

"GG needs to put on his "Big Boy Pants"  GG needs to make the tough decisions we all know what they are. GG said we didn't work hard enough he should have said I didn't work hard enough. You could see there was no Direction or Assignments it was like he just said "go out there and play hard". Now think how Babcock, Bowman, or Torts would have prepared this team for that game.

1) Every one of our lines should have had an assigned synchronized skater on McDavid (Ferland, Tktchuk, Brouwer, Glass).

It's not a matter of just going out and working hard. You first have to play smart  and then play hard within your abilities. We don't have a superstar but neither does NSH or OTT. 

You are right about this being the 1st game and yes if this team is going to be successful against EDM they will need to devise ways to defense McDavid. I'm not even going to put up a defense regarding a disappointing effort because it does fall on everyone not just GG. If there was a plan and I'm sure there was, it was not carried out effectively. Aside from our defensive effort where was our offense, any offense. We have work to do.

[rickross]

13 minutes ago, AlbertaBoy12 said:

hmm how bout the fact that we were a top 5 team in the league last year in terms of points after a horrible start. how bout taking the worst pp in the league to top 10 or the worst pk to #12. He improved the teams corsi for by 3%. These are all signs of a very good coach and someone who should be trusted with this team. Oh and he did alot of good with very inconsistent goaltending, should be interesting to see what we can do with consistent goaltending.

 

Im sorry but you want to mention babcock in a change of style, but if you dont see the difference between GG and BH you should go watch some of those games. Also you bring up him berating the team in public, but oddly after that they were very good until the last stretch in california at the end of the season.

When you have the worst Of any corsi in the league there's only one place to go. Sure they improved in PP and PK stats but the rest of our stats are still middling. Having the 10th PP and 12th best PK aren't winning you any Cups. No one is saying GG isn't an improvement over BH but who cares? This isn't just about being better than his predecessor, it's about winning the Stanley Cup. GG has done some really good things for this team but that doesn't mean you crown him. Is he going to have to publicly berate his team and hand out beer on a train every time he wants this team to compete and win games? Let's not forget our season really ended at game 82 last year. You can talk corsi all you want but it didn't do anything for this team in the playoffs where it really counts so what's your point? 

[MAC331]

3 minutes ago, rickross said:

Oilers got 44 shots on net and you think that's solid D play by the Flames? Oilers allowed us 26 shots. We're supposed to have one of the best D corps in the NHL but yet they got outplayed by guys like Matt Benning, Darnell Nurse and Kris Russell. Imagine what McClellan would have done if he had the personnel of our top 4. The Oilers played a better defensive structured game with less talent but with greater results.  That's the sign of good coaching. It's one thing to make the playoffs and it's another to win in the playoffs. GG can surely get us to the playoffs but I've yet to see us win a series let alone 1 playoff game under him. I'm not saying he can't do it but he has much to prove in that respect. It's game 1, I'm not calling for GG to be fired yet but if the mandate is to win now I'm more of a skeptic at this point in his tenure. Like I mentioned above, the optics of a coach saying how well prepared their game plan to contain McDavid is only to have him score a hat trick on you looks bad. When your goalie is by far your best player in a losing effort, its never a good thing. Also the Flames inability to create offence is getting old, it was a problem last year and looks to be a problem again this year, this obviously isn't just a 1 game issue. Monny had our best chance to score yesterday, think the Oilers had more than 17 quality chances. 

I think you are trying very hard to say GG can't do it so why keep up all the double talk. It is fine not to like or favor a coach just be honest enough to say it.

[AlbertaBoy12]

22 minutes ago, rickross said:

Oilers got 44 shots on net and you think that's solid D play by the Flames? Oilers allowed us 26 shots. We're supposed to have one of the best D corps in the NHL but yet they got outplayed by guys like Matt Benning, Darnell Nurse and Kris Russell. Imagine what McClellan would have done if he had the personnel of our top 4. The Oilers played a better defensive structured game with less talent but with greater results.  That's the sign of good coaching. It's one thing to make the playoffs and it's another to win in the playoffs. GG can surely get us to the playoffs but I've yet to see us win a series let alone 1 playoff game under him. I'm not saying he can't do it but he has much to prove in that respect. It's game 1, I'm not calling for GG to be fired yet but if the mandate is to win now I'm more of a skeptic at this point in his tenure. Like I mentioned above, the optics of a coach saying how well prepared their game plan to contain McDavid is only to have him score a hat trick on you looks bad. When your goalie is by far your best player in a losing effort, its never a good thing. Also the Flames inability to create offence is getting old, it was a problem last year and looks to be a problem again this year, this obviously isn't just a 1 game issue. Monny had our best chance to score yesterday, think the Oilers had more than 17 quality chances. 

Good defence doesnt mean less shots. We could have been outshot 40-20 but have 5 more high danger scoring chances and win a hockey game, just flinging a puck at the net doesnt mean much but it looks good on the shot clock. Smith made some great saves last night, but to say they outplayed us by a wide margin is far off.  Yes the oilers had 18 high quality chances and we had 8, but the mcdavid line got 9. 

 

So the question is whos to blame the coach or the top players for not getting going offensively? My point is I dont think our defence was bad last night, I think our offence was the problem, you cant defend all night and then claim we have low quality defence. The oilers didnt have to do much defending so of course their D looked good. This comes down to players not coaching. The gameplan only takes you so far, same with the preparation.

[rickross]

22 minutes ago, MAC331 said:

I think you are trying very hard to say GG can't do it so why keep up all the double talk. It is fine not to like or favor a coach just be honest enough to say it.

No. If I didn't like him or believe he couldnt do it I'd have no problems saying so. I've been saying this entire time the potential is there but I just haven't seen it translate onto the ice yet. I'm still willing to give him this season to prove himself but time is running out. Remember we only have a 2-3 year window with this existing group. 

[tmac70]

1 hour ago, JTech780 said:

The Flames were only outplayed by McDavid, and he is going to do that to most teams in the NHL for a long long time. The rest of the Oilers were just ok. I am not saying we played good, but we didn't get outplayed dramatically by the Oilers last night.

 

No team in the league is stopping that 2nd goal, Brodie is probably our best skater on the team and he looked like was skating in quicksand compared to McDavid. 

 

Brouwer was directly responsible for the other two goals.

Really you might want to re watch the game, even the coach disagreed lol

 

 

[MAC331]

Just now, rickross said:

No. If I didn't like him or believe he couldnt do it I'd have no problems saying so. I've been saying this entire time the potential is there but I just haven't seen it translate onto the ice yet. I'm still willing to give him this season to prove himself but time is running out. Remember we only have a 2-3 year window with this existing group. 

I think you have said so in a very round about way which is fine. As far as our window of 2 to 3 years, how are you defining this and for who ? what about the quality pipeline being developed, is this not for the purpose of icing a continuous contender ?

[tmac70]

24 minutes ago, AlbertaBoy12 said:

Good defence doesnt mean less shots. We could have been outshot 40-20 but have 5 more high danger scoring chances and win a hockey game, just flinging a puck at the net doesnt mean much but it looks good on the shot clock. Smith made some great saves last night, but to say they outplayed us by a wide margin is far off.  Yes the oilers had 18 high quality chances and we had 8, but the mcdavid line got 9. 

 

So the question is whos to blame the coach or the top players for not getting going offensively? My point is I dont think our defence was bad last night, I think our offence was the problem, you cant defend all night and then claim we have low quality defence. The oilers didnt have to do much defending so of course their D looked good. This comes down to players not coaching. The gameplan only takes you so far, same with the preparation.

Did edmonton even need to shower after that game.... When your coach indicates the players never won a 50/50 battle cleraly indicates there was 100% no effort. First game or not as i indicated in preseason, this club in no way can flip a switch from non competitive to competitve in one day

[rickross]

20 minutes ago, AlbertaBoy12 said:

Good defence doesnt mean less shots. We could have been outshot 40-20 but have 5 more high danger scoring chances and win a hockey game, just flinging a puck at the net doesnt mean much but it looks good on the shot clock. Smith made some great saves last night, but to say they outplayed us by a wide margin is far off.  Yes the oilers had 18 high quality chances and we had 8, but the mcdavid line got 9. 

 

So the question is whos to blame the coach or the top players for not getting going offensively? My point is I dont think our defence was bad last night, I think our offence was the problem, you cant defend all night and then claim we have low quality defence. The oilers didnt have to do much defending so of course their D looked good. This comes down to players not coaching. The gameplan only takes you so far, same with the preparation.

You said it yourself. We were outshot 44-26, they had 18 quality shots to our 8. That's gotta be around 40% of their shots being high quality scoring chances, not only were they getting a ton of shots on us but that's a high percentage of scoring opportunities for them. If not for Mike Smith this could have turned into an embarrassment. The stats show how much we got outplayed like it or not. 

 

The blame falls on both sides, the players should have played better on both sides but the coaches should have also made the necessary adjustments on the fly. McLennan out coached GG in that sense. If the McDavid line is putting up half their high quality scoring attempts then obviously you need to change something on the defensive side. If your game plan isn't working then you should have a backup plan , great coaches adjust on the fly all the time.  Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Oilers swept us last year and it's already off to a bad start this season, i expect better results this year.