Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Another blind and delusional optimist thread? 5 GAME UPDATE

Loyal and True · 10-01-2013, 07:58 PM

Can't say I would bet a year's salary on being a .500 club this year, much less a playoff team.

Further, all can agree that long term building is more important than an unexpected visit to the post-season as if struck by lightning.

Nevertheless... crazy things happen. And when they do, the pundits make revisions in an attempt to make sense of the unbelievable events they have observed.

So let me submit the following "truths", if you will:

1. This is still a salary cap/floor era, with a significant degree of competitive balance. This is not the young guns era where the underdog's entire team is paid less than the favorite's starting 5.

2. Randomness is a huge factor. shooting %, save %, PDO can be otherwise tagged "chemistry, confidence, consistency" etc when many times it is dumb luck. We've seen many teams come out of nowhere in the past 10 years and it will happen again. We've also seen many players have breakout seasons where nobody saw it coming. Ramo? Berra? Sven? Backlund? Monahan? Brodie? One or two of these could explode at any time.

3. Good coaching, systems and goaltending remain the equalizer against teams with more talent on paper. Tippet, Trotz, Craig Anderson... list goes on...

The Flames are not spending to the cap, for good reason, but perhaps our cap spending has much less "fat" compared to prior years. In the past there were many more bloated contracts where pay was based more on past performance. Even a player like Stajan at 3.5 cap hit and used to play 8 mins a game, and now is pretty effective on a line with Stempniak and Glencross. He is much better value for money today. An argument could be made that our cap spending is much better "pound-for-pound" than it has been for years.

Nobody's banking on the Flames, but some team is going to shock the pundits. If it were the Flames you can bet that some of these notions would be dug up to explain it. Kind of like the finance reporters who justify a 200 point rise in the markets on Monday and just as quickly explain the 200 point drop on Tuesday.

At the end of the day, it might be equivalent to winning 50/50 draw at a local event. Not likely, but you never know. Well, this season put me down for $20 on the long shot. I'm in. Go Flames.

10-01-2013, 07:58 PM	#1
Loyal and True Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Dec 2010 Exp:	Another blind and delusional optimist thread? 5 GAME UPDATE Can't say I would bet a year's salary on being a .500 club this year, much less a playoff team. Further, all can agree that long term building is more important than an unexpected visit to the post-season as if struck by lightning. Nevertheless... crazy things happen. And when they do, the pundits make revisions in an attempt to make sense of the unbelievable events they have observed. So let me submit the following "truths", if you will: 1. This is still a salary cap/floor era, with a significant degree of competitive balance. This is not the young guns era where the underdog's entire team is paid less than the favorite's starting 5. 2. Randomness is a huge factor. shooting %, save %, PDO can be otherwise tagged "chemistry, confidence, consistency" etc when many times it is dumb luck. We've seen many teams come out of nowhere in the past 10 years and it will happen again. We've also seen many players have breakout seasons where nobody saw it coming. Ramo? Berra? Sven? Backlund? Monahan? Brodie? One or two of these could explode at any time. 3. Good coaching, systems and goaltending remain the equalizer against teams with more talent on paper. Tippet, Trotz, Craig Anderson... list goes on... The Flames are not spending to the cap, for good reason, but perhaps our cap spending has much less "fat" compared to prior years. In the past there were many more bloated contracts where pay was based more on past performance. Even a player like Stajan at 3.5 cap hit and used to play 8 mins a game, and now is pretty effective on a line with Stempniak and Glencross. He is much better value for money today. An argument could be made that our cap spending is much better "pound-for-pound" than it has been for years. Nobody's banking on the Flames, but some team is going to shock the pundits. If it were the Flames you can bet that some of these notions would be dug up to explain it. Kind of like the finance reporters who justify a 200 point rise in the markets on Monday and just as quickly explain the 200 point drop on Tuesday. At the end of the day, it might be equivalent to winning 50/50 draw at a local event. Not likely, but you never know. Well, this season put me down for $20 on the long shot. I'm in. Go Flames. Last edited by Loyal and True; 10-11-2013 at 11:17 PM.