Quote:
Originally Posted by Regorium
If we iced this lineup from game 1, I would argue that we'd have an extra 4-8 points.
But we didn't, and kept the youth in the AHL for an extra 25 games. I don't see how you attribute keeping them in the AHL for a quarter of the NHL season to the recent success.
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Playing Hathaway, Mangiapane and Jankowski (only one of whom I thought earned a spot in camp) from the outset would not have allowed that line to form in the AHL and light it up the way they did. Really, Foo was a bigger expectation to make the NHL than Mangiapane or even Hathaway IMO.
Rittich had played one period in the NHL, and had merely been ok in that one. The NHL game is a lot different for goalies - NHL shooters are way better, the game is a whole lot faster (however the D is a lot more structured). It's so hard to predict a good result from AHL play. The Flames have had several stellar AHL goalies who didn't pan out in the NHL and there's no way that Rittich was "obviously" going to be a great NHL goalie.
As it turns out, the GM's moves have worked quite well. You could argue equally that he gave each callup exactly the right amount of AHL seasoning this year.