Hartley and Treliving Reflect On The 2014-15 Season

8 years ago

Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley and general manager Brad Treliving held court with the media this afternoon at the Scotiabank Saddledome, as the capper to the annual garbage bag day festivities.

Here’s what the take-aways were from their (lengthy) pow-wow:

On the whole, everyone emphasized that (a) expectations are going to be higher next season and (b) next season is going to be tougher. The messaging was pretty consistent from Treliving throughout his availability: the bar has to be set higher next season, and everyone needs to be better.
Treliving: “Our plan has not changed. Our plan has not altered. We’re still climbing that mountain, and if you look back in history and you really analyzed those teams that have climbed to the top of the mountain there’s steps that you have to take, but moreso, there’s gotta be a persistence and there’s gotta be patience in getting to that level. We’re still a team in a growth stage and to me, right now, what we are not going to do is rush out tomorrow and starting sending a young player, two young players, three young players out the door because we think we can get the one last little push over the cliff.”
Based on Treliving’s comments, this season allowed them to identify which of their young players (and older players) could be part of their core going forward. I’d expect the playoff experience really helped in that respect.
Treliving: “A quote that is something I think we need to live by: champions behave like champions before they are champions. For us to grow, it’s a mindset, it’s a lifestyle…you have to live like a champion before you are a champion. The things we did in the past, we have to do it better.”
Hartley: “That’s the law of sport. You need to win. You need to lose. And sometimes the harsh reality of this business is you have to first learn to lose before you learn to win, and that’s probably what we went through in the last round.”
Treliving identified Mark Giordano as the “number-one priority” for the summer. His contract expires after the 2015-16 season. He cannot be signed until July 1. He was praised as a culture-setter for the organization. Restricted free agents Lance Bouma and Mikael Backlund were also discussed, and Treliving noted he felt they’d both get deals done.
Based on Treliving’s comments about carrying three goalies – it doesn’t work – it seems unlikely that Karri Ramo will be back next season. He didn’t have nearly the level of enthusiasm regarding Ramo’s return as he did Giordano, Bouma or Backlund. (He later mentioned David Schlemko as a guy who helped out the defensive group, so his return may be a possibility, too.)
It was mentioned that the Flames do have cap room, but they’ve also modeled out the next five years (or so) in terms of their cap space. They’re aware of what players are due for raises in the future.
There will be changes, but Treliving mentioned they have to be surgical in their approach. They can’t go chasing something and make poor decisions in free agency over the summer.
Treliving had a lot of praise for Bob Hartley and his coaching staff throughout his comments. While Hartley’s two-year extension didn’t automatically re-up his staff (Jacques Cloutier, Martin Gelinas, Jamie Pringle and Jordan Sigalet), he’s working on getting everyone inked for the future.
In terms of young players: Emile Poirier, Bill Arnold, and Ryan Culkin were specifically mentioned in terms of players that Treliving liked when he saw, or wanted to see in the future. In general, he feels that they have some good young players coming, but want to keep stocking up and adding assets.
Treliving likes having extra draft picks. They feel they’re well-positioned in terms of making picks, or in terms of moving picks for players (or presumably to move up in the draft if needed). They think this draft has the potential to be a deep/special draft, and they’re “ecstatic” to have the picks they have.
Treliving, on size and speed: “You’ve got to be careful with size. We’d all like them to be six-four and skate like the wind and shoot it a million miles an hour. You can’t just get lost in size for the sake of size. They still have to be able to be players, and be good players.” He noted that the teams still playing right now all have foot-speed in common.
As they operated with Sam Bennett, Hartley said he was a bit hesitant to throw Wotherspoon into the line-up when they were fighting for a playoff spot. They went with Corey Potter because of the age-difference when they made the decision initially (when they were fighting for a spot), then went with Wotherspoon in the post-season because they wanted to invest in him “for today, and hopefully tomorrow.” Both Hartley and Treliving praised Wotherspoon’s work this year. Treliving wants Wotherspoon to be ready to come into camp next year ready to wrest a full-time NHL job away from somebody.
“Our speed and conditioning got us to the playoffs.” – Hartley, noting that in many of their comebacks, their depth guys got them back into games. It was a capper to a discussion about the importance of speed and the decline of the role of the enforcer in the league.
In terms of the team’s weaknesses, Treliving identified defensive depth. He also noted he felt the team had a good defensive group, but he wants to address the depth of that position this summer. He also noted that he wants the team to improve their possession game, without saying the word “possession.”

“We need to spend more time in the offensive zone. That’s holding onto pucks, protecting pucks. A defenseman can play 27 minutes, for instance. And if 10 of those minutes are standing at the offensive blueline and not defending behind your goal line, those are all things that you break down the game. It’s a harder 10 minutes chasing guys around your end than it is standing at the offensive blueline.”

Hartley says the seven-game segments will be back next season.
Injury details from Treliving:

Jiri Hudler – neck and back issues, generally banged up
T.J. Brodie – sprained ankle
Lance Bouma – broken finger; he had 8 pins and a metal plate in his right index finger
Micheal Ferland – oblique strain
Joe Colborne – thumb and wrist
Josh Jooris – wrist
David Schlemko – groin
Sean Monahan – groin and back
Paul Byron – a groin, a hand, and a sports hernia (that he had surgery for) [not mentioned by Treliving, but Byron mentioned it during his scrum]

If nothing else, Treliving and Hartley were saying the things after this season that those most skeptical about this team’s 2014-15 success would hope they’d say.

Hartley and Treliving Reflect On The 2014-15 Season

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