Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
But those teams were a b**tch to get on because they were great and everyone knew they were hard to get on because you had to knock off someone that's better than you. You were looking to knock off Doug Gilmour...not Setaguchi or Byron or Jones or Colborne.
It's naturally a lot harder to accept when you get sent down by a team who will be fighting for last, and your play has been better than the guys who are staying up. To not make a team like the Flames must be pretty deflating.
The only reason the "over-ripen" strategy worked with prospects in Detroit is because the NHL team itself was great and there was an argument to keep the status quo. That's a lot harder to back up on a team that is fighting for last telling everyone that they are functioning under an egalitarian system.
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In the 80's you weren't trying to knock off Gilmour. It was guys like Colin Patterson, Mark Hunter and Perry Berezan. Vets on both teams got established minutes and rookies had to beat out the fringe guys, which Fleury couldn't do at the start of the season either, and he turned out OK.