Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
I believe the Flames hoped they would be better than last year, but weren’t willing to sacrifice long term cap space for middle level players. UFA’s aren’t the only way to get better.
Look at this team compared to start of last year. Frost and Farabee for a full season. Leaving space on back end for a couple of the young D to play. Expecting a bounce back for Sharangovich and Andersson. Continued improvement from Coronato.
Did they make a huge off season push to jump up in the standings? No. But they certainly weren’t trying to get worse. Only position where they legitimately took a step back was backup goalie. And IMO they were ready to do something there in season if needed.
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Personally I felt they'd get worse because you wouldn't get the same seasons from Huberdeau and Kadri ... largely the offensive engine of the team last year.
That has largely been true, but the slack has been taken up by balanced scoring and a huge pop from Andersson.
I think they thought they'd be bad last year, and were surprised they weren't.
Would guess they were expecting a normalization of some of the things that went well pushing them down the standings this year. (certainly happened early)