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FlamesAddiction · 07-02-2014, 03:21 PM

From a truculence point of view (I hate how the word is overused, but I think everyone gets the point behind it). Which teams are the most ferocious currently?

It used to be the Calgary Flames brand going all the way back to the 80s, to be a team that no one ever wanted to play against, and over the years we got away from that. Now it looks like we are getting back to the basics.

So where do the Flames rank against other teams in this respect? And are we balanced enough? While we have a lot of tough players, there seems to be some polarity. The top lines in particular seem to be a little light.

We have some pretty fierce players now (McGrattan, Bollig, Bouma, Wolf, Engelland, Smid, plus guys like Giordano and Glencross who can be pretty tough to play against). Although we still have a handfull of players that are good in other ways, but aren't going to scare the opposition (Hudler, Raymond, Stajan, Russell, Backlund, Wideman, and potentially Baertschi, Gaudreau and/or Granlund). Not that those guys are all pushovers, but no one is going to be intimidated by them either. And of course, there are a few that are right in the middle (Monahan is one that I think is going to develop into a pretty tough player).

I guess with the polarity, I am having trouble seeing where we stand up to other "tough" teams. And will it help development of our young players in the long run?

07-02-2014, 03:21 PM	#1
FlamesAddiction Franchise Player Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Vancouver Exp:	Hardest Teams to Play Against From a truculence point of view (I hate how the word is overused, but I think everyone gets the point behind it). Which teams are the most ferocious currently? It used to be the Calgary Flames brand going all the way back to the 80s, to be a team that no one ever wanted to play against, and over the years we got away from that. Now it looks like we are getting back to the basics. So where do the Flames rank against other teams in this respect? And are we balanced enough? While we have a lot of tough players, there seems to be some polarity. The top lines in particular seem to be a little light. We have some pretty fierce players now (McGrattan, Bollig, Bouma, Wolf, Engelland, Smid, plus guys like Giordano and Glencross who can be pretty tough to play against). Although we still have a handfull of players that are good in other ways, but aren't going to scare the opposition (Hudler, Raymond, Stajan, Russell, Backlund, Wideman, and potentially Baertschi, Gaudreau and/or Granlund). Not that those guys are all pushovers, but no one is going to be intimidated by them either. And of course, there are a few that are right in the middle (Monahan is one that I think is going to develop into a pretty tough player). I guess with the polarity, I am having trouble seeing where we stand up to other "tough" teams. And will it help development of our young players in the long run? __________________ "A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can." Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 07-02-2014 at 03:24 PM.