That 89 team was amazingly stacked. Once the moved out Hull for Ramage and Wamsley, it was the tipping point of going 'all in' as a contender, and I argue that the season before that was a huge disappointment. IIRC, it was either the Habs, Oilers or Flames as Stanley Cup favorites that year.
Remember Darryl Sutter talking about "The most 20 goal scorers" years back? Well, the 89 Flames had the most 50 goal scorers. They were an absurdly deep team, and the expectations was the cup finals. No one would have predicted that they would win the cup on Habs ice - first time in Habs' history after all, but they entered the playoffs as favorites.
I guess some people don't remember the Flames as being an elite team - a true elite team, that was extremely well-managed with the best scouting staff in the NHL at the time. They were one of the more forward-thinking organizations. They were elite at basically everything for about 4-~6 years.
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