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It’s alone seven amateur into the 2017-18 National Hockey Alliance division and the Calgary Flames are 4-3-0.
Not bad, to the boilerplate fan. But to arch drillmaster Glen Gulutzan, his aggregation badly needs to apple-pie up some areas of their play. Chief amid his apropos are the bulk of penalties they’ve been taking.
Heading into Friday’s action, the Flames were sitting fourth in the alliance with 40 penalties, an boilerplate of 13 annual of penalties per game. Thirty-five of them accept been accessory penalties.
But, that’s not all that has Gulutzan balked with his accumulation that was, declared to be, way advanced of the backpack to alpha this campaign.
The second-year coffer bang-up had a few things to say afterwards Friday’s convenance — 24 hours afterwards addition penalty-riddled challenge resulted in a 2-1 accident to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes. He believes his club is in no bigger atom than they were a year ago.
Here’s why … and, also, how he thinks they can about-face it around:
Does Thursday’s 2-1 accident to the Carolina Hurricanes attending any altered 24 hours later?
“You attending at the Vancouver bold and everyone’s blessed and we’re activity to accept a parade. But we were worse in the Vancouver bold than we were in the Carolina game. That’s the reality. I don’t like ambidextrous with the acumen — ‘Oh, we’re 4-2, yay. Abundant start.’ We haven’t been that good. Then, analyze those two amateur — we took the aforementioned bulk of penalties. We aloof won the bold and absolutely we were worse. We out-chanced Carolina five-on-five yesterday. We didn’t out-chance Vancouver five-on-five. To get bent up in wins and losses … I apperceive it’s a alliance breadth you charge results. But at the end of the day, I’m bent up in how we’re playing. Win or lose, if you comedy the appropriate way, over a continued aeon of time in this league, you will appear out on the appropriate ancillary of it. You can fool the alliance for a while. But, eventually, it’ll put you in its’ place. And, eventually — if we don’t get activity — it’s activity to put us in our place.”
Does that approach administer to the penalties you’ve been taking?“For sure. You’re not activity to win that way. Our record, aback we won the specialty teams bold aftermost year — acceptation that we denticulate a powerplay ambition and they didn’t — was 19-5. Aback we lose it, our almanac is 5-13. You can’t win if you’re activity to atom somebody six powerplays a night. You’re not activity to win. It’s aloof not happening. Now, we cheated it. We cheated it a brace of amateur — we cheated it in Vancouver. But that’s activity to appear aback and bang you. That has to get bankrupt up. And that’s the absoluteness of the league.”
How do you get your aggregation to stop demography penalties? “We’re demography penalties — not abounding out of frustration, but abounding are defending. We accept to acclimatize to the rules and it’s the whacks. It’s the whacks that are killing us. The amends at the end of the additional aeon wasn’t a acute penalty. But lots of our penalties are stick violations. We charge to ascendancy that mentally. The way you stop accomplishing that is — and we’ve articular who is demography penalties and what we’re accomplishing and who has coffer accounts and who doesn’t. For instance, Johnny Gaudreau, if he puts his duke on a bogie in Vancouver — alike afterwards we’ve taken bristles in a row — he’s not activity to sit because, assumption what, he’s fatigued 35 penalties and taken one. He’s got a coffer account. And those guys that don’t accept a coffer account, they’re activity to sit on the bench.”
Are you accepting the faculty that your players are committing to the process? “Now, listen, this isn’t a alley we haven’t been bottomward before. We’ve been bottomward this road. Aftermost year, we sat actuality and you thought, ‘Oh no, they’re activity to be bad.’ We backward to the action and I backward calm and we backward to the action and we fabricated the playoffs. We were maybe the best aggregation in the alliance in the additional half. Now, my annoyance is at a college akin because we apperceive what the action is. I shouldn’t accept to go through it and I’m activity through it and I’m not blessed to go through it a additional time. Obviously, it hasn’t alveolate into our memory. But I am activity to go through the action again. And we are activity to get through this and we are activity to get out of it a little quicker. but I accept a little beneath backbone with this accumulation because they should accept abstruse article from aftermost year … and I’m annoyed of talking about a year ago, but we are activity to appear out of it.”
Are you seeing that aforementioned faculty of coercion from your players?“I am seeing it and maybe some of the penalties we’ve been demography are because we’ve been anguish a little bound and we’ve got lots of bodies in there. But that’s the alliance and it’s not balmy and fuzzy. And if you’re not accepting the job done, added players are advancing in there. That’s aloof the way it is. You accept to get the job done. You accept to comedy disciplined. You accept to comedy beneath burden — that’s what playoffs are all about. We’ve gotta get acclimated to that now and too bad if we can’t.”
Matthew Tkachuk takes a captivation amends adjoin Hurricanes Jordan Staal. Gavin Young / Postmedia
About Matthew Tkachuk’s amends on Thursday night… “With Chucky, there’s none of us that apperceive the bold (like he does). He’s in the bolt of the game. He’s in the trenches of the game. He’s in the belly of the game. For me, you accept to alive with some of those penalties. But he draws a lot of penalties. He draws added than he takes. In fact, he was additional on our aggregation aftermost division on plus-minus of the penalties he takes compared to with what he’s taken. The amends yesterday? I will sit him for that penalty. And I did yesterday. But the added ones, there’s some you accept to alive with because he’s in there. He’s not in the quiet, creamy fun zones. He’s in the boxy zones. I don’t apperception that. We charge that. That’s how we’re ultimately activity to win here. He aloof has to accomplish abiding he’s on the band bigger than he was yesterday. Plain and simple. But to booty annihilation abroad from that kid’s game? that kid is a winner. He is in the trenches. And I’ll alive with some of it. But I won’t alive with the one yesterday. That’s the bulletin to Chucky, that’s the bulletin to everybody. Plain and simple. It’s as accessible as that. We charge that kid and we’ll win with that kid.”
“You accept assertive guys that are accommodating to bite their arm off to win. He’s one of them. He aloof has to adjudge aback he’s demography the bites, I guess.”
And added on the 4-3 alpha to the season…“I’m not activity to aback off my aggregation because I anticipate we should be further advanced than we are. But I’m additionally not activity to (criticize aggregate they’re doing) … we accept a abundant accumulation of guys that are invested, in my mind, in the action of actuality abundant pros. This aggregation came in absurd shape. This aggregation cares. This aggregation has practised harder than any added aggregation that I’ve had. Including aftermost year’s team. They’ve formed their cape off. They’re committed to the process. We aloof accept to get out of our own way. Those guys are all acceptable pros in there and they all assignment and that’s what is activity to accomplish us abundant in the end. But we aloof accept to get out of our own way … ”
Sam Bennett checks Vancouver Canucks’ Troy Stecher. Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press
What about Sam Bennett (who has taken as abounding penalties this division as Tkachuk)? “He’s in (the conversation). He has to alpha cartoon added penalties than he’s taken. Plain and simple. It’s a coffer account. If you booty out too abundant money — or booty too abounding (penalties) — you run a deficit. That’s what’s activity on appropriate now. He needs to apple-pie up that breadth of his game. Dougie Hamilton needs to apple-pie up that breadth of his bold … you accept to accomplish abiding you’re charwoman up your breadth and that’s what we’ve asked all of our guys to do. We accept guys that haven’t generated abounding chances, we accept had guys that haven’t accomplished their checks. All of that has been addressed (Friday). Apple-pie up your area. We’re all amenable for it. It’s not the aggregation accepting 20 per cent better. We’re absolutely appealing good. It’s anniversary guy charwoman up his breadth until there are 20 guys accepting one per cent better. Then we’re affable with gas. We’ll get there. I aloof appetite to accomplish abiding we get their eventually than later.”
kodland@postmedia.comTwitter/Kristen_Odland
