Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
I would agree with you except for Calgary.
Iginla, through no fault of his own, became bigger than the team, bigger than the club and he became the singular focus. If we want to thank Feaster for any one thing it would have to be agreeing to be the fall-guy and getting rid of Iggy.
And I dont mean that in a negative sense. Iggy had to go, for his sake and for the team's sake. He became the team and organization's singular focus point and that wasnt fair for him or the team and moreover it was counter-productive.
Every loss was his fault and every win was because of him. We had to 'win a cup for Iggy.'
He has skill and his talent goes without question, but Iggy was one of those personalities that just couldnt take a back-bencher role.
The guy was bigger than life and we just couldnt move forward with him and if we brought him back it would be a circus that would put the Ringling brothers to shame.
Hell, imagine Theo Fleury in the pre-season times a thousand.
Its okay to like him as a man and as a player without him necessarily being a Calgary Flame. Dont get me wrong we all harbour the notion of picking Iggy up at the trade deadline one year while the team is rocking and rolling and wins a cup, but those are sports pipedreams that rarely coalesce into reality.
But thats hardly being a 'hater.' I like Iginla, and I wish him nothing but the best so long as the Flames do better.
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I agree with a lot of the items you are talking about and I think management is due some blame for this. I love Iggy but one of the issues the Flames faced in his last few years here was a lack of few young emerging quality players to assist and take over the "team" so to speak.
If hypothetically the Flames still had him along with our existing emerging players such Monahan, Johnny Hockey, Bennett and Brodie than the transition would have been easier.
Plenty of teams have had future Hall of Fame worthy players of Iginla's caliber and have been able to make the transition better while still maintaining that presence of the veteran. Injecting the youth whom the fanbase, the media and the team can get behind can help.
Just a few players that come to mind off the top of my head would be Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Teemu Selanne etc.
Just my opinion.