Bob Hartley-Coach of the year

[yave1964]

  The Calgary Flames are sitting at 31-37-7 with 69 points and way out of a playoff spot. Nonetheless Bob Hartley has done one hell of a job coaching this bunch.

 

  This is a bad team with very little talent. Hartley took lemons and made lemonade. 31 wins was a good 10 more than most thought possible.

  Jiri Hudler had a great year, Mark Giordino has established himself as an under the radar offensive d-man. Mikael Backlund has established himself, Sean Monahan has went through growing pains but has not looked horribly overmatched.

 

  Hartley has taken a team of castoffs and miscreants, they have five players in their regular rotation who were released by clubs in their career, and made a team that played hard every night and would surprise teams on a given night as they did the Rangers the other night 4-3.

  Joe Colborne, given up on by Toronto opened the scoring. Paul Byron, given up on by Buffalo assisted on the second. Kevin Westgarth donated by the Hurricanes tied it at 3. And the winner, scored by Cammeleri was set up on a crisp pass by Buffalo reject Chris Butler.

  These guys are like Custer against the Indians but 31 times this season they have rewrote the story line.

 

  And in goal? Reto Berra was found wanting and donated to the Avalanche. Joey MacDonald at 34 bounced back and forth between the Flames and Abbotsford. Karri Ramo has been okay but cannot stay healthy. Something named Joni Ortio which sounds like a host from a 1970's disco television show has managed to get into 9 games.

 

  This is a bad team. I give credit where it is due, Bob Hartley has done possibly his best coaching job of his fine career in obscurity. Great job, even if nobody noticed. I am not serious saying he deserves to be the coach of the year, but the job he has done is simply remarkable.

[Vanflyer]

The Calgary Flames are sitting at 31-37-7 with 69 points and way out of a playoff spot. Nonetheless Bob Hartley has done one hell of a job coaching this bunch.

 

Hey Yave, 

 

If I am going to get behind a coach whom I think is an asshole for Jack Adams, hands down it will be Roy (or Hitchcock). There are other finalists I would put above hartly too. 

 

I think its going to be Roy. No way you can go from last to nearly first (100 pt plus season) and not get it- particularly with minimal personnel changes from last season. Hitch gets honorable second (any coach that gets 50 wins has to be there). Julien should be there too, but his team is pretty stacked and they have been competing at a high level for several years now. 

[yave1964]

Hey Yave, 

 

If I am going to get behind a coach whom I think is an asshole for Jack Adams, hands down it will be Roy (or Hitchcock). There are other finalists I would put above hartly too. 

 

I think its going to be Roy. No way you can go from last to nearly first (100 pt plus season) and not get it- particularly with minimal personnel changes from last season. Hitch gets honorable second (any coach that gets 50 wins has to be there). Julien should be there too, but his team is pretty stacked and they have been competing at a high level for several years now. 

  I ABSOLUTELY give the Adams to Roy this year (Begrudgingly as a wings fan, lol) but my point is Hartley still has this hopeless collection of has beens and never weres hustling and grinding hard every night, beating the Rangers, beating Edmonton 8-1 a week ago, essentially winning a lot more than was thought possible. I was not serious with Hartley for coach of the year, just giving him his due for getting a hell of a lot more out of this club than anyone would have thought possible. 31 wins out of this bunch? Great job.