[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Bader has the Flames 6th, so yeah if they give up four pieces they'd be like any of the teams in that area, not worse in his opinion ... which has a lot more in it than you're Chicken Little schtick.

Bader is a joke. He's a Flames die-hard apologist in the same vein that mudcrutch was for the Oilers. Creating bull#### stats that don't hold up to real scrutiny. Pumping up late draft picks because of TJ Brodie, Johnny Hockey, and Andrew Mangiapane turning into players is a pile of bull####. You have to look at it player by player, and the players the Flames have drafted are real questionable quantities. A lot of small players whose skills just don't translate. It's why every other publication that reviews prospects and systems has the Flames in the bottom third of the league, and some of them even bottom of that third.

Now beyond that I'm not that far from you on the AHL guys, not high at all, but that nor the roster was the topic. It was prospect systems, of which the junior aged players are likely the ones being coveted by Buffalo.

Okay, so move the goalposts to just junior aged players. That's fine. Ignore the previous three years of Treliving's work, the guys who fill out our minor league roster. The exact same thing applies. No top end talents. No bluechippers at ANY position. The Flames have drafted a bunch of absolute maybes. And after the best of those maybes, the 1st round picks, we have maybe two or three other prospects we can say look promising.

Not likeable.
No hope.
Not good.

And you wonder why I call you out for the sky is falling crap on a weekly basis? It gets old man.

Where is that assessment wrong? Is this team likeable? Not a ####ing chance. The top six are the same top six that the vast majority of the board are dead set against and want run out of town. I haven't seen so little support for our top players since the Young Guns era, and at least with those guys we had HOPE sold to us. Who on this roster is remotely likeable and the fans are going to rally around. Read your own board man. This team is NOT liked by the diehards who should fully in their corner. And it only got more unlikeable this past off season with the additions of less skill and less speed.

Where is the hope on this team? Where is that next great superstar in development? Where is that core that is going to lead us to the promised land of a Stanley Cup? What we're staring at is a leading scorer without a contract and heading to free agency. On the heels of that we have a guy that gave up on the team last season and needs $9M to qualify, and is on record of saying he is going to bend the team over for everything he can get out of them. He's admitted he's a mercenary and is in it for the money. Next on the list is a number one center that the fans are trying to run out of town. Where is the HOPE from this group? The only HOPE we have is that Trelving's hand is forced and we dragged into a rebuild.

How is this team GOOD??? Look at the results. Look at the system. What have they done to be considered good? They aren't good and the prospects of them being good are not... well.. good.

Even if you were 100% right which you aren't 100% of the time it would be a tiresome and bleak way to live.

And your constant apologetics for this team gets tiring. Your constant reliance on questionable stats that tell you something the eye test clearly tells you is wrong, that gets old too (You know, we're all still waiting for that turnaround you assured us all those advanced stats were telling you was just around the corner!). When does it click for you that sometimes a team that is a loser is just a loser, and all the phoney baloney stats won't change that. You can call anyone who doesn't see the Flames through your rose colored glasses a "chicken little" but be aware that what you're spinning is reminiscent of the old snake oil salesman, trying to sell the latest cure through a concoction that just doesn't make sense, that concoction being a bunch of garbage stats that don't show any consistent outcomes. If you want to rely on old adages there Bongo, I'm game.