The Calgary Flames will participate in post-season hockey for the fourth time in the past six seasons. Their qualifying round opponent is a very similar team in the Winnipeg Jets.

While the teams themselves are nearly mirror images of each other, their coaching staffs (and their head coaches) are quite different.

The Flames are on their third coach in four seasons, and their fourth different coach in four post-season appearances under general manager Brad Treliving.

Their current bench boss is interim coach Geoff Ward, who’s in his first NHL head coaching gig (and season) of his lengthy coaching career. His assistants are Ryan Huska (second season as NHL assistant), Martin Gelinas (eighth season) and Ray Edwards (first season; seconded from his usual role as director of player development). The goalie coach is Jordan Sigalet (sixth season).

Ward, 58, is a former physical education teacher whose coaching career began as an assistant with the University of Waterloo way back in 1988-89. He’s spent time on coaching staffs in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, DEL, DEL2, OHL, MWJHL and Canadian university (plus internationally with Canada and Germany).

As a head coach, Ward has run the show in Ontario junior B (Waterloo, 1993-94), the OHL (Kitchener and Guelph, 1994-99), the ECHL (Arkansas, 1999-2000), the secondary German league (EC Bad Nauheim, 2000-01), the AHL (Hamilton, Toronto and Edmonton, 2002-05), the main German league (Iserlohn and Adler Mannheim, 2006-07 and 2014-15). In-between gigs in Germany, he developed a reputation as a creative power play coach whose teams were consistently dangerous on special teams through stops in Boston and New Jersey. Ward has coached teams to junior B and DEL championships and has been named coach of the year in the AHL and DEL. He won a Stanley Cup as an assistant with Boston in 2011.

Ward interviewed for the vacant Flames gig that ended up going to Glen Gulutzan in 2016. He was hired on as associate coach under Bill Peters when he was hired n 2018 and ascended to the interim gig when Peters resigned in November amidst allegations of racial misconduct from prior in his coaching career. He has a reputation as a smart tactician based on his time as an assistant coach, but he’s fairly untested as an NHL head coach and tends to run his bench in terms of systems and deployments very similarly to Peters. With Ward running the show, the Flames have a 25-15-3 record (including a game where he ran the bench but Peters hadn’t left the club yet).

The Jets are on just their second coach since migrating north from Atlanta in 2011 (and their second under general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff).

The current coach is Paul Maurice, who’s in his fourth NHL head coaching stop of his career (and his 21st season as an NHL head coach). His assistants are Jamie Kompon (13th season as NHL assistant) and Charlie Huddy (21st season). The goalie coach is Wade Flaherty (11th season).

Maurice, 53, has been behind a bench of some kind pretty much continuously since 1987 – with the exception of the 2004-05 season. The bulk of his years have been in the NHL, but he’s also had stops in the AHL, KHL and OHL, as well as international gigs with Team Canada and the Team Europe hockey Voltron at the World Cup of Hockey.

As a head coach, Maurice has a very long resume (especially at the NHL level). He’s ran benches in the OHL (Detroit, 1991-92 and 1993-95), AHL (Toronto, 2005-06), KHL (Metallurg Magnitigosk, 2012-13), NHL (Hartford/Carolina, 1996-2004; Toronto, 2006-08; Carolina again, 2008-12; Winnipeg, 2014-present). He replaced Claude Noel mid-season in 2013-14. Maurice hasn’t won any awards as a coach, but he’s received some Jack Adams votes throughout the years – including a first place vote in 2018-19. He has won two OHL Championships as a head coach.

Maurice is well-regarded in coaching circles, as he’s considered a fairly smart tactician and as tough but fair to his players. He’s third among active NHL coaches in games – behind only Joel Quenneville and Barry Trotz – and has coached 1,600 regular season games (and 80 in the playoffs). Under Maurice the Jets have a 272-190-54 record, 12th among the NHL’s clubs in points percentage during that span.

The Jets have the more experienced head coach and the more experienced staff. If you compare each person on each staff to their counterpart, the Jets have the experience edge across the board. Heck, the Flames have the least playoff experience of any team involved in this year’s post-season.

Both coaches have had to shuffle their rosters throughout this season – the Flames dressed 30 different players, the Jets 34 – but in a short series the edge has to go to Maurice simply due to his wealth of NHL coaching experience. He’s shown the ability to maneuver a team through the Stanley Cup playoffs, while Ward hasn’t yet had the chance.