Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving addressed the traveling media on Friday morning in the midst of his team’s six game losing streak. Treliving minced no words, including having a pretty blunt assessment of his team’s top hockey executive… himself.
“The manager has been horse shit. He has to get going.”
Treliving’s profanity might have been the most eyebrow-raising part of his chat, but his message was clear: this is on me.
I think the responsibility of the manager is I’m responsible. So if there are fingers to point right now, let’s point them in the right direction. That should be the person in charge, and that’s me. So the manager has under-performed, and I take responsibility for the performance of the team. That’s first and foremost. This is my responsibility.
Well, yeah. Treliving is by and large the architect of the current incarnation of the Flames. He either drafted, developed, signed, re-signed or traded for effectively the entire current NHL roster. Just as he was worthy of praise when things worked out – like last season – he’s worthy of criticism for the current group. The Flames have effectively no cap space and spent much of the summer waiting for clarity in the RFA market that never materialized. The team that’s on the ice now is the 2018-19 Flames with a couple bodies swapped out.
But Treliving was also pretty blunt with his comments, basically doubling down on the current coaches and core.
“The last couple of days I’ve been asked about changes. The coaches aren’t going anywhere. Our top players aren’t going anywhere,” said Treliving.
In other words: don’t expect to be bailed out by an incoming savior or a coaching change – the team that’s here will need to figure their way out of this.
Treliving met with the team prior to Friday’s practice. The group followed up their 10 minute players only meeting at the arena with a lengthy, hours-long chat at the team hotel.
Tkachuk: maybe it was a sign the plane didn’t come last night and we stayed at the hotel (in St. Louis) to just sit and talk as a group.
— Ryan Leslie (@SNryanleslie) November 22, 2019
The Flames were still in St. Louis, rather than in Philadelphia, because their plane broke prior to flying to St. Louis to pick them up. No, really.
As if a 5-0 loss in St Louis wasn’t enough, sounds like the Flames plane was grounded for mechanical issues last night. A lot of broken parts around this club right now.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) November 22, 2019
