Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbob
I think there is something to this. Canadian teams don't seem to be held to as high accountability as American teams. I think Canadian are willing to wade through more crap, probably because there are less options here (no NFL, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, etc).
I think a comparable situation Canadian versus American, would be the Islanders and Oilers. Both storied franchises have struggled mightily but the attendance didn't fluctuate as bad for the Oilers as it did for the Islanders. Yeah Nassau is a hole, but is it that much better then Rexall?
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I see it almost as the opposite. Teams in the U.S. can survive for years and years of skittering along the bottom of the standings,with 12,000 people in the stands. Just look at the Islanders and Panthers.
In Canada, there's such intense public and media scrutiny that the franchises are terrified of a run of bad seasons, so they make short-term decisions in a desperate bid to cling to mediocrity. The Leafs are the poster child of this, though the Flames took this approach for a long time too.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Sabres rebuild is more patient and, in the end, more successful than the Flames. At some point, Flames upper brass won't be able to resist the temptation to trade away picks or throw around money to shortcut the process.