{"id":102624,"date":"2021-03-05T07:15:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T12:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=102624"},"modified":"2021-03-05T07:15:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T12:15:03","slug":"calgary-flames-fire-geoff-ward-hire-darryl-sutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/03\/05\/calgary-flames-fire-geoff-ward-hire-darryl-sutter\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Flames Fire Geoff Ward, Hire Darryl Sutter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Calgary Flames have relieved coach Geoff Ward of his duties. The announcement was made following the team\u2019s 7-3 victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/senators\/\" target=\"_self\">Ottawa Senators<\/a> on Thursday night. Former coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sutteda01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darryl Sutter<\/a> has already signed a three-year deal to replace Ward.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Flames?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Flames<\/a> have named Darryl Sutter as head coach after relieving Geoff Ward of his coaching duties. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mLnCcViexV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/mLnCcViexV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NHLFlames\/status\/1367713800279846919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Flames Fired Geoff Ward, Hire Darryl Sutter<\/h2>\n<p>Geoff Ward has been fired as coach of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/flames\/\" target=\"_self\">Calgary Flames<\/a>. He leaves the organization after two seasons with a 34-26-5 regular-season record. In his only postseason appearance, Ward led Calgary past the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/jets\/\" target=\"_self\">Winnipeg Jets<\/a> in the Qualifying Round before losing in the 2020 Western Conference First Round to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/stars\/\" target=\"_self\">Dallas Stars<\/a> in six games.<\/p>\n<p>In reaction to the firing, the Flames have immediately announced Ward&#8217;s replacement, signing Darryl Sutter to a three-year deal.<\/p>\n<p>Sutter previously coached the Flames between the 2002-03 and 2005-06 seasons. However, in his second year, he took on more responsibilities in a dual role as both coach and general manager, leading the club to its third Stanley Cup Final. They lost in seven games to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/lightning\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After the 2005-06 season, Sutter stepped down from coaching to focus on the GM role. He is best known in that capacity for acquiring goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kiprumi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miikka Kiprusoff<\/a> for\u00a0a second-round pick in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>Following a six-year hiatus behind the bench, Sutter returned to coaching in 2010 and won two Stanley Cups with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/kings\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Kings<\/a> in 2012 and 2014. He hasn&#8217;t coached in the NHL since being fired by the Kings, nearly four years ago. Overall he has a 634-437-101(ties)-83 coaching record in 18 seasons.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means Going Forward<\/h2>\n<p>Recently, the Flames have hit a rocky patch in their season. Calgary (11-11-2) sits fifth in the North Divison based on points percentage.\u00a0 They have lost seven of their last eleven games and have been outscored 39-27 in that span. Despite signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marksja02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Markstrom<\/a>, the best goaltender in the 2020 free-agent market, the team is struggling defensively with a -7 goal differential.<\/p>\n<p>However, it doesn&#8217;t appear that the franchise has any plans on rebuilding. The fact that the Flames fired Geoff Ward mid-season coupled with the length of Sutter&#8217;s deal seems to suggest that the club believes they can still compete for a playoff spot in the North Division.<\/p>\n<p>Geoff Ward becomes the second coach to be fired this season. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/02\/24\/montreal-canadiens-replace-claude-julien\/\" target=\"_self\">Claude Julien was fired<\/a> by the Montreal Canadiens on February 24th.<\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;4226&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"n8cjR4nNRWpLJc7X2YxYvw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/647203684\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'n8cjR4nNRWpLJc7X2YxYvw',sig:'TtZ3MtZ1EPhom6dH_-akF7FKMUIz5RnxDAmzXBXXysw=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'647203684',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Calgary Flames have relieved coach Geoff Ward of his duties. The announcement was made following the team\u2019s 7-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night. Former coach Darryl Sutter has already signed a three-year deal to replace Ward. The #Flames have named Darryl Sutter as head coach after relieving Geoff Ward of his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1733,"featured_media":102629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4547,34,4548],"tags":[6038,1532,4596,78],"class_list":["post-102624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flames","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-calgary-flames-news","tag-darryl-sutter","tag-geoff-ward","tag-los-angeles-kings"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}