It's hard to judge what some of the bad signings would've been like if a good coach was actually behind the bench and utilizing everyone's capabilities. Who know if there was actually something going on with Brouwer and Neal coming off of championship teams and then be such a huge bust with the Flames. It's the same thing with buying tools - if you don't use your tools properly, they're just not gonna work out.
As for Hiller, it's either he's past his prime when he joined the Flames but coming from the Ducks to the Flames kind of exposed him to be not that good of a goalie. Like most butterfly goalies, if you have a good team in front of you, not a problem. The guy can go down on his knees all night in one spot and still have a great save percentage. However, with the Flames teams of previous season, those immobile butterfly goalies usually get scored on when the team runs around their own zone for more than half the game. A good example of that right now is Koskinen with the Oilers. A typical immobile butterfly goalie. When the team in front of him plays well, he'll make the necessary saves. When the Oilers D, suck, you blame him for having bad goals.
Markstrom - still on the fence with him since I think Tre paid too much for a goalie on a team that's mediocre the past few seasons. For his price Tre could've signed a couple of truculent right wingers that would've helped the team last year. I guess it doesn't matter now as Markstrom is now the Kipper for Sutter.
|