CALGARY -- It's only a dream, of course. Nothing more. Nothing less. So far removed from the bounds of reality it might as well be intro-ed by Rod Serling.

	Greg Gilbert was 42-56-17-6 as head coach of the Flames.

The dream goes this way:

A struggling National Hockey League team announces a media conference as the losses begin to mount. Up at the front of the room that day, the general manager of said team proceeds to fire 23 players, none of whom are allowed to find new employment for the two to three years it takes on average for an NHL coach to resurface in the big show again (if, in fact, he ever does).

Skate a mile in another man's CCMs ...

In this dream -- NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow's nightmare -- the coach is the one left to mouth insincere platitudes about how sorry he is and how unfair it all is and drone on ad nauseum about accepting his share of the responsibility in the whole ugly mess. Then he gets to show up for work the next morning, not them.

A fun dream, for sure. A wistful dream. But, alas, only that ... a dream. For a while now, Greg Gilbert has been walking around with the grim look of a condemned man. There were moments, such as immediately following that lamentable 7-2 pasting in St. Louis on Friday (which prompted him to say, helplessly: "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."), when you'd swear he was hallucinating about the tickle of cold steel on the back of his neck. Yesterday in Denver, game day 26 of another season gone disastrously awry for the Calgary Flames, that fffffffft! you heard was the guillotine blade flashing down, for real.

Once again, the one is left to pay for the sins of the many.

In truth, so many people let Greg Gilbert down these past couple of months. Jarome Iginla let him down. Roman Turek left him down. Craig Conroy let him down. Lately, even Chris Drury let him down. Him down and the organization that pays them down. And, if they're man enough to admit it, they let themselves down, too.

There were mutterings of inflexibility and a lack of communication from the boss, but when things go bad, no one is quicker to divert blame than pro athletes. Was Greg Gilbert any different a coach than a year ago? No. Did he cut down Iginla's ice time? Or Conroy's? Can he play goal for Turek? No, no and no.

His players -- the players insistent that they both liked and respected him -- lost 11 of the last 12 games. The debacle at the Savvis Center might've reached untold heights for a team looking to get its coach fired. General manager Craig Button expressed regret at the move. He will now be working on his third coach in three years at the helm of this team. There aren't enough mirrors in the Halls of Versailles for these players to look into.

General manager Craig Button expressed regret at the move. He will now be working on his third coach in three years at the helm of this team. There aren't enough mirrors in the Halls of Versailles for these players to look into.

If it weren't so grotesquely familiar, it'd be laughable. The Flames are expected to announce Gilbert's replacement Wednesday. The logical candidate would be Viking, Alberta's own Darryl Sutter, out of work now for a total of three days since being axed by the San Jose Sharks. Sutter's availability, coupled with the timing of Gilbert's firing, almost makes too much sense. The fit is too perfect. Imagine, a Sutter back in Alberta again.

But the choice seems certain to be Jim Playfair, coach of the team's minor league team in Saint John, New Brunswick. And, with no slight intended to Playfair, how do the Flames sell him to an increasingly apathetic public? He will just be viewed as a Gilbert-in-the-making; another example of the club cheaping out.

No, the organization needed to make a definitive statement with this hire, had the chance, and let it slip by. Sutter is that rarest of commodities -- a proven, high-profile coach willing to take control of a small-market, low-budget team in the western Canadian hinterlands. Those don't wander along every day.

Yes, Sutter would've come at a hefty price. San Jose was forking over between $800,000-$900,000 U.S. in this, the final year of his contract, but maybe it's high time the Flames splurged on a coach rather than on players. They upped the on-ice payroll to $33 million U.S. this season, 19th in the league, and look what kind of bang they're getting for the buck on that outlay.

Maybe the time has come to cut down on the $1million-$1.5 million players and pay decent dough for a coach.

Around suppertime Tuesday night, Greg Gilbert arrived back in Calgary. As expected, he had nothing to say, marching past the media mob. There really was nothing he could say.

We've seen it all before, often, and we'll see it all again. Ironic and prophetic that a week after he took over from the fired Don Hay, Gilbert exploded after another listless performance against the New Jersey Devils. Many of the players from that not-so-long-ago era have changed, but the same sort of inner rot must remain.

"Maybe my head's on the chopping block now," muttered a fuming Gilbert on that night 20 months ago. Then, harkening back to Hay, he said: "It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. A good man has lost his job because of inconsistent efforts."

Make that two.

George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.