Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
Goes hand-in-hand with being a Flames fan for 40 years. They never seem to find a way to maintain control of their own destiny. Everything that should work in their favor they somehow find a way to make it work against them. It's just the way the team is, has been, and likely always will be. Success seems to be a foreign concept to this organization. The only thing worse than Treliving's handing of the current situation was Risebrough's handling of the remnants of the cup team. Risebrough at least had an excuse for his bungling.
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I'm not looking to make excuses or BT or any previous GM. But everything that should work in their favor? This won't be a popular thing for folks on here to hear, but your opinion and paddling in the pool of despair as a Flames fan for 40 years completely under values the fact that building a winner in this market is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than many others in the NHL (same as Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Buffalo, Columbs and others).
They Flames have nothing working in their favor at a macro level. For plethora of reasons Calgary is not the most desirable market for players (taxes, weather, etc..), the economics of a small market mean that the team barely breaks even if we don't make the playoffs (despite popular opinion that our owners should just burn their money on the team cause they are rich), and despite the fact fans on this site (likely the most passionate Flames fan) might tolerate a tank full rebuild - the impacts at the gate and revenue, which rely on the more casual fan to show up and spend money once and a while don't allow for it.
Which is why we end up unable to do some of things you might see a team like Tampa do if required to finally build a true cup contender. Again, I'm not saying BT or any previous GM do a perfect job, or even do a good job within the constraints I mentioned above, but I think as a fan of a small market Canadian club, we need to understand that not all things are equal, and building a winner here is going to be infinitely harder than it is in many other spots around the NHL.
Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Buffalo and others are the toughest GM jobs in the NHL.