[Rumour] Chris Johnston: Lindholm is interested in staying

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

With 8 teams in each division, there are no weak divisions anymore. You can have 2 or 3 ####ty teams in a division, but there are going to be some good teams as well.

Also, with the WCs, even if one division is a little thin, the other division will make up for it. Going forward, there will be much fewer weak sisters making the playoffs.

Remember the old Smyth division, with 5 teams, and 4 of them sucked? Yeah, we won't be seeing that sort of thing anymore.

Largely correct, but with unbalanced schedules, a weaker division means easier points, so the team that gets in as the #16 seed might be weaker than normal. Not like years ago, but still they might not be particularly good. But anomalies like that will be rare and can largely be ignored.

[Hackey]

Wouldn't the Flames be the exact definition of a bubble team though? They've made the playoffs 5 times and missed the playoffs 5 times in the last 10 years. This year again seems like a coin flip.

[Gaskal]

Win the division one year(and Flame out in 1-2 rds)
Miss playoffs the next

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Flames_F.T.W

Every time I see this thread I get annoyed that Lindholm hasn't made up his mind yet

Seems to me the longer this goes (already has gone long enough) it's up to Conroy.

There's a log jam in the market that makes any resolution to the Flames "direction" hard to describe to Lindholm and his agent.

Then stepping back ... what is he waiting for? Returns on the players going out? If they're all futures he's done? If it's win now stuff he stays?

But if the market is non existent and the team has to wait to the deadline you'd think they'd just trade him before camp.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I think the point dino7c was trying to make is that 'bubble team' has the connotation of not being very good, and not having a change to do any damage in the playoffs. With 21 teams, some bad teams get in. But with 32 teams, and the salary cap which keeps the playing field pretty level, there are no bad teams in the playoffs anymore. I think we are going to see more and more WC teams going on runs, because the difference between the 3 division teams, and the WC teams, is basically a couple of OT bounces or shoot-out wins.

Exactly, I wasn't trying to abolish the term

Panthers were lucky as F to get in with 92. The previous year the wild cards had 100+

Even with the Jets falling on their faces down the stretch the Flames needed 96 to get in. WC1 had 100...one less win than a divisional playoff team

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The Flames had the lowest games lost to injury in the league.

If Markstrom, Lucic, and a few others got injured the Flames probably would have done better lol.

The stale lineup was part of the problem

When guy like Duer got in the Flames played better and we can all speculate on what would have happened if Wolf got a shot

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by dino7c

If Markstrom, Lucic, and a few others got injured the Flames probably would have done better lol.

The stale lineup was part of the problem

When guy like Duer got in the Flames played better and we can all speculate on what would have happened if Wolf got a shot

Agreed. And for all intents and purposes, losing Kylington for a year was the same as an injury in terms of on ice loss, so you include 82 man games lost and we're probably more of a mid tier team for man games.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The Flames had the lowest games lost to injury in the league.

With how poorly several of their key players played, it may as well have been multiple games lost to injury. The point of fact is that the Flames with most of the same roster intact will not be nearly as bad, even with more injuries.

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The Flames had the lowest games lost to injury in the league.

Searching online it doesn’t appear that Kylington’s 82 games lost is counting on those lists.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Searching online it doesn’t appear that Kylington’s 82 games lost is counting on those lists.

As an aside, what a chore finding man game lost lists are online. The first result is a guy that does comprehensive lists of all teams man games lost....behind a paywall.

I'm interested in the list, but not "pay a subscription" interested.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Wouldn't the Flames be the exact definition of a bubble team though? They've made the playoffs 5 times and missed the playoffs 5 times in the last 10 years. This year again seems like a coin flip.

No, I would say that makes them a Jeckle and Hyde team

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Seems to me the longer this goes (already has gone long enough) it's up to Conroy.

There's a log jam in the market that makes any resolution to the Flames "direction" hard to describe to Lindholm and his agent.

Then stepping back ... what is he waiting for? Returns on the players going out? If they're all futures he's done? If it's win now stuff he stays?

But if the market is non existent and the team has to wait to the deadline you'd think they'd just trade him before camp.

Agreed. If Lindholm were interested in signing, it shouldn't take too long to come to a number.

IMO, having this go on through the summer, suggests that Conroy is waiting to see decent trade returns.

We shall see, of course.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

No, I would say that makes them a Jeckle and Hyde team

Mediocre is more apt.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Mediocre is more apt.

I would agree if they didn’t have 2 of the best seasons in franchise history over a 4 year span. Treliving seemingly had built the Flames up to be a potential contender but also lost his 2 best players in one offseason.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

I would agree if they didn’t have 2 of the best seasons in franchise history over a 4 year span. Treliving seemingly had built the Flames up to be a potential contender but also lost his 2 best players in one offseason.

But the year doesn't end in the regular season. I'd easily take the '04 run over any of the years under Treliving. His teams did nothing in the postseason and never looked close to being a championship caliber team come playoff time.

I guess if you value regular season equally then there is an argument to be made and understandably so, since it's a huge grind.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Exactly, I wasn't trying to abolish the term

Panthers were lucky as F to get in with 92. The previous year the wild cards had 100+

Even with the Jets falling on their faces down the stretch the Flames needed 96 to get in. WC1 had 100...one less win than a divisional playoff team

Point totals are rising across the league because there's a ton of disparity between the tanking teams and playoff bubble teams. Having Arizona and Chicago in your division last year meant a pretty easy 12-16 points for teams in the Central. Not to mention, the loser point/shootout has inflated point totals for some time now.

Then there's the whole new playoff format which pits divisional opponents against one another and doesn't reward the regular season heavyweights like the old format did, making it yes more likely that a lesser team wins a round, but it's a bit of a red herring.

Cinderalla's will always exist, and there's a lot of luck in hockey, but I think it's a pretty big stretch to say these 100 pt lower seeds are all of a sudden a coin flip from going to the finals and knocking off a top team. IMO, the get in and see what happens is a foolhardy strategy.

[Glassplat]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Seems to me the longer this goes (already has gone long enough) it's up to Conroy.

There's a log jam in the market that makes any resolution to the Flames "direction" hard to describe to Lindholm and his agent.

Then stepping back ... what is he waiting for? Returns on the players going out? If they're all futures he's done? If it's win now stuff he stays?

But if the market is non existent and the team has to wait to the deadline you'd think they'd just trade him before camp.

Nm

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Seems to me the longer this goes (already has gone long enough) it's up to Conroy.

There's a log jam in the market that makes any resolution to the Flames "direction" hard to describe to Lindholm and his agent.

Then stepping back ... what is he waiting for? Returns on the players going out? If they're all futures he's done? If it's win now stuff he stays?

But if the market is non existent and the team has to wait to the deadline you'd think they'd just trade him before camp.

That would be particularly unproductive, to trade him when the market is non-existent.

Do you suggest you dump him ala Taylor Hall?

If that ‘s the return, you wait until the trade deadline. Conroy would have nothing to lose.

[Hackey]

Seems like offers right now are poor so you hope you'd get better value at the deadline. You're probably looking at a late 1st and a b level prospect though. Conroy is probably hoping the team bounces back and Lindholm decides to stay.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Ooooh, we've seen this movie before. It doesn't end well.