Quote:
Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler
The truth, as almost always, is somewhere in the middle... The Flames are probably right in that sweet, sweet 13-18 slot. Some decent young players, some stars, some players on the upswing, some players on the downswing. Nothing special, pretty thin prospect base. I expect this team to be "average" for the foreseeable future. What I do think is that last year was seemingly the sweet spot. Peak Giordano, peak Backlund, some good cheap, young players, seemingly good chemistry (at least until the AS break). Needed some help to push it over the top. Didn't happen and I think now we need major surgery to get back to "serious contender" status, which may be very, very hard.
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I don't think last year was the sweet spot as one more forward wouldn't have salvaged our first round disaster. I think last year and this year have proved we don't have quite the right makeup.
Now where the pessimists and I differ is that I think Treliving knows there's problems with the core and has the assets required to fix it. I don't think our window is closing. Most of our best players are just about to enter their prime. The present and the future are still bright. Lindholm, Tkachuk, Monahan, Gaudreau, Valimaki, Hanifin, Andersson are all A level assets in my opinion. You choose the right ones to build around, deal the others and we're fine. I think we have some good young 2nd-3rd line depth coming up in Mangiapane and Dube. We have some good veteran leadership with Backs and Gio. It seems like goaltending may be solved long term with Rittich looking like a #1 and Zagidullin, Gillies and Parsons are doing relatively well this year. We have almost every piece we need do we not?
Imagine for a second Treliving makes another Hamilton type trade but this time with Gaudreau.
You can't let the emotional rollercoaster of losses convince you the team sucks. It doesn't suck, its a good team that's stumbled a few times this season and has dealt with a lot of adversity.
I dunno, I really can't comprehend the posters who are all doom and gloom and wallowing in their predictions of endless crappiness. Miserable way to view things imo. Why not try and look on the bright side? Why not recognize all the great young talent on the Flames? There may need to be some tweaking but Treliving has done a lot of good here and there are reasons to think he'll continue to shape the roster in good ways.
I mean you'll never convince people. Everyone has their own world view and view of the Flames and logic isn't going to change the emotional ones. But I'd rather cheer for the Flames than wallow in misery. I tend to believe it's a choice we all make unless we're clinically depressed.