Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Lemelin was a good, but not great, goalie. Problem was he couldn't beat the Oilers. Vernon could.
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Part of Lemelin's problem was he faced the Oilers when the Flames were a weaker team as well. Johnson slowly rebuilt the Flames, to beat the Oilers, and towards the end of that rebuilding, Vernon came on the scene.
One has to keep in mind that the Flames were in the same division as the Oilers, multiple Stanley Cup winners. Not only did the Flames and Oilers play a lot of interdivisional games then, but the play off structure also dictated that the Flames and Oilers almost always met in the first round of playoffs as well.
Someone posted in a different thread, the percentage of games won by various Flames coaches over the years. Badger Bob's win percentage was not that high but I don't one should conclude that he was a bad coach. I think a lot of those losses were due to the fact of how many times the Flames had to play the Stanley Cup Oilers.