Calgary Flames Monday Roundtable: All About the Coaching
By Ramina Shlah
Question 2. Between former head coach Bob Hartley and Glen Gulutzan now, who do you like/prefer more?
Jonathan Boulanger
Like I said, Glen has established a much more stable, puck possession type system. I remember hearing after the 2015 playoff run that Bob’s system was unsustainable and would crash and burn soon enough. It did, the year after. As far as personality Bob takes the cake for sure. But that’s not what matters as a coach, it’s the coaching. I believe Glen is a better coach in the modern NHL.
Alex Hoegler
Like I said above, the Flames just weren’t able to gel together under Hartley last season. Gulutzan was able to bring more structure and better puck possession with all the young stars on the Flames. This isn’t to say Hartley was a bad coach, but Gulutzan’s system has just worked better for Calgary’s young team.
Dan Raicevich
When Bob Hartley got fired last spring, I thought General Manager Brad Treliving was making a mistake. I personally liked how hard and competitive that the Flames played under Hartley when the Flames had less talent than they do today. It was exciting, fun and optimistic to see this team growing under Hartley. But after the way the past season went, I felt that Gulutzan never lost control of the room and with a defensive minded mind, the team improved mightily. The Flames are a much more consistent team under Gulutzan, and therefore I like him more than Hartley.
Ramina Shlah
Like Dan said, I also initially thought that Treliving made a mistake with the firing of Hartley. But then later on this season when Gulutzan’s system started working with this Flames team, I could see why that change needed to happen. And with different players coming out basically calling Hartley a bully and how he wasn’t always the nicest guy in the locker room, but that’s why they wanted him, was to shape the younger players. I thought it was a good idea he’s gone.
Gulutzan is known more as a player’s coach and it definitely worked this season. Like Alex said earlier, any coach that can take a team from 26th overall to a playoff spot deserves to stay. And then with that four-game losing streak happened in January and Gulutzan called the team pathetic three times in a matter of six seconds, I was like “Oh yikes, this won’t go well.” But then when we heard what happened after on the bus, how everyone was silent and he goes and gets beers and tells the guys they’re going to have some beers and talk through this, which worked because they were one of the best teams after that. You could easily see how much a player’s coach he is and that he cares about the team and not just a paycheck.
Funny how a few beers basically saved their season, hey? We know something like that would have not happened under Hartley. So I’m definitely pro-Gulutzan at this point. Even if he has a Macklemore haircut.