[CP Story] Rebuild Provides Excitement

[Flash Walken]

The games at the end of the year following the trade deadline were the most entertaining Flames hockey of the last 3 years.

It's so nice watching young guys skate hard and play team oriented hockey. Even if they lose 50 games next season, it will be much more entertaining to watch players try and lose than suck and lose.

Watching Sven turn it over the boards because he is a small rookie is so much easier to watch than Tanguay turning it over in the middle of the ice because he's a sadsack vet phoning it in.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by fotze

I think the worst thing is if the team somehow has a really good season this year. I guess that would be tempered by some players having to be playing much above where anyone projected but I think 1 to 2 more years of being bottom feeders is what we need.

No kipper, No Iginla, No Bouwmeester.

It's going to be difficult for this team to have a good season without a top pairing defender, top goalie or top line talent. Not that I care particularly, though. If you're going to be bad, you might as well be really bad.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Igottago

Definitely some reason for optimism, but I hope people understand that the rebuild has basically just begun. When the Flames are getting beat routinely in the upcoming winter months I think we'll hear a bit more grumbling and impatience for those who can't stomach rebuild. It'll be an interesting season from a player development standpoint but I think it'll be a brutal season from a competetiveness standpoint. Hopefully people are prepared for that.

I hope people remember that when that times comes

The Flames will be a bad hockey team this upcoming season, and we all know it. When that actually happens we shouldn't be surprised and suddenly decide the rebuild isn't working. That would be irrational.

Without starting that whole cheer for losing debate again, it would clearly be better if they were awful and drafted first instead of sixth.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

I think like any change in corporate strategy the ground work gets laid - often for years - and the announcement comes when it happens. So i dont think it was reticence just reality.

I also think the 'sophisticated hockey fan' idea is flames fans pumping their own egos. Yes there are fans that buy in. For a bit. Its a savage market. I think it would be dangerous for the flames to mistake excitement for the shiny new toy as endorsement or patience. The dome will be an empty morgue by January and a dismal finish will surely cost feaster his job and the flames millions. Perhaps they will still net more profit icing an Ahl team for a year or two, but the window is no longer than that. Just my opinion.

Good article to present all sides.

[megatron]

Great article and I for one haven't been this excited for a Flames season in a while.

[browna]

While I still don't like the ones running the operation, guys that are not likely here in the long term and were not brought in initially to do what they are doing now, and I think the way they handled last year has set the Flames organization back around the league, Feaster and co didn't have a choice, and made the picks (though I really think they wanted to trade at least one of the 1st round picks).

I also will be very interested to see how the Flames market this year to those paying the bills in the months ahead. IMO, I really don't think, for as much as they want to put the spotlight on the prospects this past month, they have the roster they want to start the season, currently, but pumping up the young guys (and local guys like TJ, Knight, Russell) is the only thing they can sell...hope in years ahead.

I really think they want an accelerated rebuild, and not throw out rosters like they had in Nashville in the last 2 weeks of last season, but right now, that's what they are stuck with. IMO they miscalculated what the prices were/who was going to be available/who they thought they could get at this point at FA and with compliance buyouts/trading picks, and they have some holes.

I do think they want to have more/another veteran or at least established player or two, at the expense of a 20 year old in the lineup. Until they get that, and, given the time of the year, they don't want to talk about the "young wave" (or whatever), and then go out and get a couple of 30 year olds to bolster the lineup which flies in the face of that.

[Stormchaser]

Fun to read, thanks!

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

I think like any change in corporate strategy the ground work gets laid - often for years - and the announcement comes when it happens. So i dont think it was reticence just reality.

I also think the 'sophisticated hockey fan' idea is flames fans pumping their own egos. Yes there are fans that buy in. For a bit. Its a savage market. I think it would be dangerous for the flames to mistake excitement for the shiny new toy as endorsement or patience. The dome will be an empty morgue by January and a dismal finish will surely cost feaster his job and the flames millions. Perhaps they will still net more profit icing an Ahl team for a year or two, but the window is no longer than that. Just my opinion.

Good article to present all sides.

This is where the management and owners have to be the adults in the room. If they make moves to appease the fans too early, it'll stunt the long term ability for the Flames to be a cup contender. Yes the fans will get irritated and possibly disappear, but they need to endure that, even if it means losing a few million dollars over the next couple seasons. If they rebuild properly, we could be looking at being a team like Chicago by 2016 or so and being a force that could win a few cups over the next decade. We have a large portion of the supporting cast players in place, all we need is to really suck for the next two years to get a pair of star players and we'll be on our way.

They need to not make moves like Toronto did with Kessel to try and improve before they are ready to. If they do, all they will do is stunt the ability to be a legit contender rather than an also ran (see Toronto, or any Canadian team the past 20 years).