Colbourne was playing well before he went down to injury. Raymond actually still looked a bit off at start of season, could tell he missed most of training camp due to injury, and was trying to learn Flame system on fly. He was starting to settle in when he got hurt. Still, both were in a small group of Flames pointing up points at start of season while waiting for some of the other players to get up to speed. If they had not been hurt it would have been interesting to see how much of a contribution they both would be making now. Having upper body injuries might have made it possible for them to keep skating, but you can tell they were not able to do a lot of shooting or puck handling drills during their recuperation time. It will take some time to get their timing back. The young guns had the advantage of Penticton, training camp and start of regular season. You could tell the difference between them and the Flames regulars right from the start of training camp. It took most of the vets a few weeks of regular season to start playing up to the level we expected from them
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