Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug
For me, the 90s were the low point. Young Guns was a nice slogan, but looking at those teams, it was incredibly clear that the Flames had no chance with that talent. How we didn't end up drafting top 5 is still an absolute mystery to me. It never felt like we would ever make the playoffs. Even 2004 felt like a bit of a fluke.
I don't think this team is as bereft of talent, but it might be close after the sell off. I am ok with it, but truly burning the thing to the ground is terrifying to me, as I think that would lead to a solid 7-10 years of pain.
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Was really only 3 seasons between when Fleury and all the previous vets like Cassels, McInnis, Nylander and those guys left before Conroy came in and Iginla began dominating that was the true "young guns" stretch. The period before when they were losing with a bunch of washed up vets was way worse.
Had either seasons or game packs all through that stretch and remembrance of it was that Fred Brathwaite was absolutely lights out for two of those seasons, and the team had a ton of plugs, but also enough scoring with a good goalie not to truly suck. Was the dead puck/trap era but aside from Iginla, Val Bure was pretty consistently around 30 goals and played very well. Marc Savard, Phil Housley and Cory Stillman were all decent offensive players as well.
The other thing about those teams was they would absolutely start kicking the #### out of other teams once a spread opened up, they always seemed to have 2 or 3 real tough guys and a crew of 5 or 6 middleweights behind them. Even when they were losing the games always felt eventful.