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Originally Posted by Oil Stain
It will be very interesting to watch the Flames this season. I could easily see them in the playoffs, or flaming out.
One interesting note. Iginla and Kopitar in their last year with Sutter as coach: 67 and 52 points respectively. The first year with a new coach: 94 and 92 points. Huberdeau is a nice sleeper pick for your fantasy hockey league IMO.
My biggest concern for the Flames would be something that many Flames fans are excited about. Coronato, Pelletier, Duehr, Ruzicka. As it stands the Flames are poised to start the season with what amounts to four rookie forwards. Ruzicka is an exception in that he has basically a season full of games, but hasn't established himself as an everyday player.
A couple of injuries to any of the other forwards and then you are looking at 5-6 rookies in the lineup at forward. Rookies generally aren't great at helping to win hockey games.
Fancy stats are another thing to watch. Last season the underlying stats were stellar. I think that is in part to Sutter being an exceptional coach, but also I think his system inflates those numbers to some extent.
Both Calgary and LA had a big drop off in fancies after Sutter left the bench. LA had a massive dead cat bounce and went from 85 points to 108 or something with awful underlying numbers then proceeded to fall off a cliff the next season. Calgary on the other hand just went to middle of the pack in underlying numbers and sagged just a bit in the standings.
Just like last season Calgary is a team that could swing either way. If I had to bet on it, I'd probably go with the Flames supplanting Seattle as the 4th seed in the division and making the playoffs.
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THN sees it the way you do- 4th in the division, with Seattle out.