Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Anyway, I'm not saying Sutter is the bees knees. My basic point is this: Sutter's impact on the Flames ineptitude is greatly overrated. Sutter happened to preside over a period where the wheels were going to fall off anyway. People searching for causality will blame Sutter where there were much more fundamental reasons at work. Those being the team talent was overrated by most everyone, the team got older and less skilled, the team's leadership was very poor, the team had no young players coming in, and the makeup of the team with way too much money spent on defence were main reasons for the how bad they were.
Sure maybe Sutter could have squeezed water from a stone and squeaked into 8th but lets be real here. That team stunk for much greater reasons and Sutter was one of the only honest guys saying that a rebuild needed to happen.
But now, in that thankless position, we can all take turns throwing stones instead of looking at likely were the real issues.
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You've got valid points here. The Flames lost 60 some goals from Cammalleri and bertuzzi walking away for nothing and got a whopping 5 back from Bouwmeester the following season. It's absolutely correct to say the Flames tied up way too much money on defense. That's obviously not on Iginla, especially if you subscribe to the notion that he doesnt like defense.
The Flames finished 4th in goals against, but couldn't score. They did play the way he wanted them to.
It's also equally valid to point out Brent was expected to return Phaneuf to his glory days of red deer, instead he's traded for trash. I fail to see how that's on Iginla.
A significant portion of fans and media alike thought Brent would bring results equal to or better than Keenan did. I'm one of a small minority (much like the Iginla detractors) who actually liked Keenan. The incredibly sad fact is he has the 2nd most playoff wins since Darryl was behind the bench.