Is Darryl Sutter to blame for the Calgary Flames lackluster season? Nathan “Grav” Murdock explores the reasons why the Calgary Flames have struggled this season and why it shouldn’t be pinned on the head coach. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
@GravitehHockey
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40 Comments
May I get pinned
Ot a subscriber
Oh boy… this one’s gonna be fun 😂 Do YOU Think Sutter is Completely to Blame or Not? Let Us Know!! 👇
Sutter might be part of the problem because it seems like some of the players don't like him or gel with him, but the Flames have some of the best analytics and underlying numbers in the league they just have really bad goaltending and they can't finish their chances
Its actually not that obvious. The owner loves Sutter. The GM has no contract going forward. The players are also accountable for not giving the fans and themselves a professional effort. The Flames are a poop sandwich and we in Calgary have to all take a bite.
"Got rid of 2 superstar players" LOL, what are you even talking about. Please go do your homework.
We need to win a Cup for Barb
anytime you are tied my favorite team the San Jose Sharks, you're doing things wrong
They should hire bruce there it is
if Sutter gets fired i would love my Sens to hire em. That's if DJ gets canned at the end of the season
Treliving jumped onto bad contracts .. needs to be held accountable
Sutter is a part of the problem, the offence that can’t score is too, as well as the defence that can’t defend and goalie that can’t stop a beach ball. Long story short, the flames as a whole are trash
He’s apart of the problem. Huberdeau is definitely a major problem for why they most likely won’t make the playoffs.
Sutter can‘t adapt to different players. imo a good coach can.
As a flames fan I do not think the flames will fire darry why because darry is not the problem here the problem is the team and the goalies stop blaming the coach
He is the main problem. His coaching decisions are suspect like why is the fourth line out there when they pulled Markstrom against Vegas. Watching Lewis whiff in the slot is a tough scene.
People love to blame a coach but at the end of the day the only way to get a mean coach off your back is to play amazing and give him nothing to complain about (don’t do that and you’re in the dog house it’s expected)
It’s 100% flames upper management.
Stop blaming others for the short falls of the management
Entire organization tanked embarrassingly this year. Treliving made lackluster moves, Sutter is Sutter, and players like Mangiapane absolutely tanked, while Huberdeau and Weegar couldn't adjust to Sutter's system fast enough. Sutter is definitely a problem and is probably going after this season but it's stupid to blame it all on him.
Players play – Coaches – coach ! How bad You want it ?
Hes not tbh its awful goaltending and lack of finishing he’s made calgary a statistically great team but he can’t finish for them
He's not the problem Flames have been avoiding rebuild like Winnipeg for a while…
And same problem with top guys,except Calgary core is even older
Keep guys who want to be there and move on from Toffoli/Dubois,wheelers/lucic,Scheifele/Backlund,Depends on return hellebuyck/markstrom,Anderson/Pionk,Zadorov/Dillion,Stetcher/Stanley. And start drafting core of players who want to be here at draft stay away from players who you know will want out minute they can.
I rather have guys like benson,Yager,Danielson,Heidt, Dragicevic, sawchyn, Bedard,from western Canada will want and know meaning of being next Iginla/Selanne to a franchise and it means alot more then wanting go southern states.
Also possibly winning a cup in Canada since 1993 will cement your legacy.
Excuse excuse excuse. How much do these mofos get paid again ? 😂
Bad luck, huh?… Not enough to suck enough to be bad to be good again.
the goaltending stinks, and they are more mid than last year.
I don't know why people are blaming Huby for all of it. Calgary is a team that gutted its 2 biggest driving offensive forwards, and now when they have a great player like number 10, and you hope he helps get you over the hump? I mean what else does Calgary actually have in the way of offense? Pelletier idk his name but give him a shot in the top 6 but you scratch him while still lacing up Milan. Sutter may not be the ONLY problem but he is a big one
Flames just suck
Treliving should be fired too. He messed up the team trading Tkachuk and losing Gaudreau. Markstrom/Vladar are still good goaltenders, but maybe the Flames should change their goalie coach?! The fact both goalies have struggled with their save percentage being low and not making the clutch saves, either the goalie coaching needs to be upgraded or Sutter's system is not working anymore w/ Markstrom/Vladar.
They refuse to play his style of hockey, they look nothing like other teams he has coached. I suspect he has lost the room and the younger players do not respect him.
Obvious offensive problems as the big signings have failed to produce. While it is easy to point at Markstrom and complain, he is playing exactly the same as he always has. He was never starter material and should not have been signed to the contract he got but… Calgary needed a goalie, there were few on the market and he was the best of what remained at the bottom of the barrel. Still does not excuse the contract they signed him to.
Will Sutter be gone? Probably, maybe promote him to something else so it does not look so bad. Who are they going to replace him with?
I can see them moving Kadri, Markstrom and Huber. The franchise needs a rebuild. Zero clutch players and the intended core are just not producing.
Calgary has set a new NHL record out shooting opposing teams by 10+ and still losing.
The problem is that they let a 100 points a season player Tkachuk go.
Silly take. Nothing he could do?
Sutter cannot adjust his "system". When the other coach adjusts his team Sutter just tells his players to play harder. He has no other answer. Regularly out coached. He doesn't even use his last change at home.
The game has passed him by. He's a dinosaur.
Goaltenders usually thrive under defensive systems, like Sutter's, but it's been bad for 2 years. Last year, stars thrived, yet, Huberdeau can't do it and Kadri was always only a complimentary player. So I'd like to see this team play with an offensive/up tempo style. If it doesn't work, then the GM must go next.
I dont know who this guy is but pretty clear he doesn't actually follow the Flames on a day to day basis
First off… nobody got rid of Gaudreau and Tkachuk… They chose to leave and Treliving did the best job possible to replace those players. he was a saviour and pulled off magic in the off season, anybody that thinks differently isn't looking at it from a business prospective. I also guarantee there wasn't a better offer to be had for what they got for Tkachuk. Even if the team tanks, he still has those assets.
I also don't blame Tre for not making a move at the TDL. The team didn't show any consistency or promise that bringing in one player would fix the issue. Specifically if that player would then have to adjust to a new system. Anything of significance available at the TDL was out of the flames price range anyway, and even if they made a deal, would just hurt them in the future. Specifically with the future being uncertain.
If anything, playing in a Sutter system should make you a better hockey player, even if your main talent is offence. But you have to buy into the system and actually play hockey. Saying Huberdeau can't play in a Sutter system is like saying Gaudreau can't play in a Sutter system… Pretty sure that sentiment was floating around when Sutter got hired… Cough* Cough* Eric Francis …. Remind me, what were Johnny's totals from last year playing in a Sutter system?
Sutter took an underperforming team that didn't make the playoffs, and turned them into a powerhouse that produced at a significantly higher pace than every year/coach prior and made it into the final 8. It's also worth mentioning that almost the entire team had career years under Sutter.
I would bet Huberdeau's struggles comes from the fact that his life was flipped upside down. He went from probably one of the most lax markets in the NHL which is located in a place nicknamed the sunshine state and is essentially tied for the lowest altitude sitting at sea level, a place that I almost guarantee he figured he would spend most his career, to playing for one of the most gritty/ high expectation/ Canadian market teams that fall in the top 3 coldest places to host an NHL market (Winnipeg and Edmonton) that has the 2nd highest alltitude in the NHL, on top of that, they also play a completely different playing style. There was always going to be an adjustment period.
What's plaguing the team right now in my opinion, is a lack of chemistry. Everything is there except for the finish. Most the odd man rushes that cause flames to trail in games are caused by errant passes. Passes missing their mark also probably contribute to more post/crossbar hits, and just completely missing the net in general. The poor play of Markstrom to start the season obviously doesn't help the situation.
I'm sure they had hoped to have more success this season, but Flames are actually in a perfect situation going into next year. They have next year to pull everything together and make it work. If they aren't in a better position come trade deadline, they have a plethora of players who contracts are expiring that both contending and rebuilding teams would be salivating over the idea of acquiring. Flames could walk out of the TDL with 10 first round draft picks over the next few years on top of prospects. Lindholm, Kadri, Huberdeau, Anderson, Hanifin, and Toffoli could all probably fetch at least one first round pick if not multiple for some of them. Dube, Mangiapaine, Markstrom, Vladar, Weegar, Zadorov, and Coleman could also get decent returns if the market is right.
if the system the coach is running doesn't match the skillset of the players on the roster then it's the coaches job to adjust his systems so his players can succeed. Huber with that contract isn't going anywhere, if Sutter wanted to keep his job he needed to adapt his coaching.
I wouldn't agree that it's free fall. It's a lot of bad puck luck and they're out shooting opponents at a very high rate. Just a bad year. I'm not even upset at how they play each game, but I don't agree. Free fall. That's an absolutely asinine statement considering if you turn half their losses in overtime into wins there in the playoffs that's not free fall
gm failed, he did nt get rid of 2 superstars, they left…he shoukd have added an offensive threat alot sooner, we all knew we needed atop 6 guy….why could nt he get it done ?
I root so hard for a Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup…. TORONTO is so overdue 😢.
You make good points but I don’t think the two players gave the gm much choice. They need a new coach and a player to feed huberdou
Markstrom is a major problem and needs to go. He gets 6M and has an average that's lower than the backup. Sutter needs to go for the simple fact that he continues to play Markstrom regardless of how well Vladar plays the previous game. Of course this could be what Treliving wants and he also needs to go simply for the horrible trades he made to get Uberdough, whose success in Florida relied heavily on other players. Ultimately, Treliving is the core of the problem because he acquired all these overpaid useless players
No Sutter is the problem.