Randy Carlyle will not be the next coach of the Calgary Flames

Just one day after the majority of Flames fans were popping bottles and dreaming of roses and Boudreaus, it all came screaming to a halt with one tweet from a prominent hockey insider.

Now, I’m in no position to flat out discredit Renaud Lavoie – though the man tweeted we should expect Jonathan Drouin to be dealt within 24 hours, a couple thousand hours ago – but I think some cold water needs to be put on this before it burns out of control. 

We’ve got enough fires to deal with as is (side note: All our thoughts and prayers are with those affected in northern Alberta by these devastating fires). 

What I’m trying to say is, and the reason I’m writing this thing in the first place, is Randy Carlyle will not be the next coach of the Calgary Flames. 

Everything (edit: mostly!) Brad Treliving has done in his time in Calgary has been executed with logic and rationality, and neither applies to a scenario where Carlyle coaches the Calgary Flames next season. Here’s why. 

Connecting the Brian Burke/Randy Carlyle dots is easy, and is likely what Renaud Lavoie did when sending out that tweet. The wording suggests to me it’s nothing more than an opinion. 

The other thing that suggests it’s nothing more than an opinion, is the fact that Randy Carlyle replacing Hartley simply makes no sense. It’s like replacing a green apple with a red apple. It’s essentially the same thing. 

While Carlyle believes in truculent, “black and blue hockey” which is what Treliving and Burke have both said they want, Carlyle’s coaching style is what disqualifies him for the job. It’s almost a carbon copy of Hartley’s.

Tough. Demanding. Old school.

If the players were sick of getting flayed daily and maybe were in need of a softer voice, bringing in Randy Carlyle seems like an ass-backwards solution.

Every coach will get on his players sometimes and using aggressive tactics can be effective at times, but when employed constantly they’re tuned out, and once tuned out, you end up on the street. See: every hot headed coach ever. 

Carlyle was personally shipped and delivered out of Anaheim by his players and lost the Leafs even quicker; I just can’t see the Flames taking a chance on him. If they’ve tuned out Hartley – which it sounds they have – Carlyle isn’t on a much different frequency, and it won’t take long before he melts into the wallpapers, too. 

From a systems standpoint, arguments can be made that Carlyle is nowhere near what the Flames want in terms of puck possession and with him at the helm, they could end up in the same boat of “crappy system, crappy usage, fire the coach!” which nobody wants.

Having said that, Carlyle has been out of the game for a while, and could say he’s changed and adapted his style to the new game. But old habits die hard and I doubt we’ll see a 60-year-old revolutionize and revamp a system he won a Stanley Cup with, albeit a decade ago. Bob Hartley won his cup nearly two decades ago and didn’t change much. 

Brad Treliving mentioned every time he was asked that the Flames would be more than open to giving a rookie head coach a shot. They’re looking for a fit, that’s the main objective. Someone whose style, attitude and approach fits best with their job description. 

If Randy Carlyle is the man who fits that job description best, then I don’t see why they fired Bob Hartley. Ergo, Randy Carlyle will not be the next head coach of the Calgary Flames.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go knock on all the wood I can find.