Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Everything, and I mean everything, that could go right did go right last season.
How many times do you see this happening as well. Young team that nobody thought would do anything surges and makes the playoffs only to be out of it for a couple of seasons after.
Remember the alacrity that some posters had at the suggestion that maybe the Flames of last year were the Avalanche of two years ago? Turns out, maybe that's true. Maybe the Flames got extremely lucky and are now extremely unlucky. The fabled regression that many had the Flames in store for is here.
The bottom line is that the team isn't near talented enough. Not last season, not this season and that's why we're still rebuilding.
I don't hold any one accountable. I don't think Hartley deserved all the credit he got last year, nor the blame he's receiving this year. I think Treliving still managed to nab a major piece of the rebuild landing Hamilton last year even though we finished high in the standings and traded our 1sts to get him. I'm glad we only appear to have tied ourselves to one over-performing player from that season in Giordano, and frankly, if there was a least-bad player to commit to, it was him.
So yeah, re-calibrate your expectations. The timeline was always five years (at least) irregardless of short-term setbacks and accomplishments.
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Yeah sure most knew they overachieved last season. If you go back I predicted this team would be in tough to make the playoffs this season and I believed they may take a step back. However this isn't a step back. It's Oilers bad. The Avs struggled last season but they were never this bad. This team is still in the middle of a rebuild yes but their play shows a team that isn't really competitive against any teams in the NHL. If it wasn't for being affective at the 3 on 3 gimmick this team would be historically bad going into early December. Saying that you are in year three of a rebuild and the talent isn't there yet simply isn't acceptable when they play a variety of hockey that is so fundamentally poor.
There's no bad luck involved when your defense plays in their own zone like it's a fire drill most nights. There's no bad luck involved when your goaltenders have issues stopping even the most pedestrian of scoring chances. There's no bad luck involved when your PP and PK are both practically last in the league. Yes the coaches deserve a lot of the blame as this team is extremely poorly coached. That "rah-rah" believe in yourself stuff will only take a team so far when you lack fundamentals to fall back on when bounces are no longer going your way which is exactly what has happened.
Right now I'm worried about the long term damage this is doing for the young players as you see even a proven coaching staff in Edmonton has been challenged trying to get the bad habits broken and play fundamental hockey after the disaster of Eakins swarm and believe me this Hartley system isn't any better. Bad habits all around on this team.