Teams who were expected to do miserably but ended up doing well?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Florida was a hodgepodge of players cobbled together and the much maligned Brian Campbell contributed (contrasted to Bouw here, coach's philosophy vs playters' aptitudes notwithstanding)

Florida also won with a terrible goal differential, and promptly went back to the type of form their goal differential predicted they'd have.

Originally Posted by WilderPegasus

Except Edmonton. You can predict they'll be terrible every year and never be wrong.

Except 2005-2006.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by SebC

Florida also won with a terrible goal differential, and promptly went back to the type of form their goal differential predicted they'd have.

Except 2005-2006.

No disputing the fact that Florida overachieved one time, just addressing the question. Which was looking for anomolies, arguably

[Bourque's Twin]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

I remember in 05-06, Buffalo AND Carolina were teams full of rookies and unproven players expected to finish at the bottom of their respective divisions. They ended up having fantastic seasons and playing each other in the conference finals with Carolina going on to be champions.

One can never entirely predict how a team will do in any given season. It's why we all start each year with a little bit of hope, no matter how bad our team is 'projected' to be.

Take Calgary for example. What if Baertschi rapidly progresses to an 80 point player, Brodie is a top two D-man, And Ramo ends up being damn good? Suddenly the team isn't so bad, and stranger things have happened... This is the franchise that saw a second round pick traded for another teams third string goalie that turned the team around from a decade of futility overnight.

Carolina had so many veterans on that team as well.

[Bourque's Twin]

The Flames have play fast, tough and disciplined. If they can do that well and one of the 3 goalies gets hot then they could string together some wins. I think the toughest teams for the Flames to beat will be incredible defensive teams with big players.

[$ven27]

Colorado and Ottawa in recent memory. Interestingly, Craig Anderson was on both teams.

[Vinny01]

Phoenix prior to their first season with Tippet was expected to be in last they made the playoffs. Ottawa 2 years ago was predicted to be 15th in the east and made playoffs. Montreal last year and Columbus as well. Sure Columbus missed the playoffs but on paper they were by far te favorites for 30th

[1991 Canadian]

Last years Montreal Canadians are probably the best example. They made no major offseason additions (unless you consider losing Gomez addition by subtraction). They had a new coach. They had average goaltending from Price. Their young players stepped up (Subban, Eller, the Gal line).

Don’t get me wrong. We don’t have an NHL proven goaltender. Our young players are largely unknown. Brodie is no Subban.

But who knows.

Honestly, it is somewhat refreshing to have low expectations this year. I’ve been fooled by perceived offseason improvements too many times these past few years.

[badger89]

I'm hopeful that the young kids will have breakout seasons and the Flames will somehow be in the hunt for a playoff spot. But I also know that the best thing for the team would probably be to finish bottom 5 for another couple of years and load up on draft picks. The prospect pool is looking much better, but could use the addition of one or two more blue chip prospects.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[Enoch Root]

In their second year in the NHL, the Winnipeg Jets were doormats - 32 points in an 80 game season. They were bad. At one point they went 30 games without a win. Both those stats were records.

That summer they drafted Hawerchuk. And they made a trade with St Louis I believe (going by memory here) for Ed Stanowski, who gave them solid goaltending, Paul Maclean, who played wing with Hawerchuk, and a third player I can't remember.

The Jets had an all-rookie first line and went from 32 points to 80 points - the biggest improvement n NHL history (at the time).

[Nehkara]

The interesting thing for the Flames is that I do see the potential for this to occur.

Ramo and Berra are both unknown variables and could turn into excellent goaltenders.

Brodie could take a leap forward and become a #1/2 D-man (lots of potential for a young D-man to come in and make difference too, such as Sieloff, Wotherspoon, or Breen... even Ramage or Cundari).

Monahan and Baertschi could have incredible seasons and give us a reasonably strong top 9 at forward (when combined with Cammalleri, Hudler, D. Jones, Backlund, Glencross, Stempniak, and Stajan).


There is potential in many NHL teams that are not very good for this to happen. The Flames have that potential, but the odds of it actually happening are quite low. A lot of things have to go right.

As the years progress and more of our prospects jump into the NHL fray, the odds of the Flames taking a big leap forward should increase (see: Gaudreau, Poirier, Klimchuk, Gillies, Jankowski, Agostino, Sieloff, Ramage, Wotherspoon, etc).

[Huntingwhale]

1974-75 Islanders. After bombing the previous 2 seasons, they came roaring back to clinch a playoff spot and become dominant for the next 11 years.

[stignasty]

Originally Posted by Cambardi

I don't wear "rose colored" glasses and like most proclaim; I expect them to finish quite low in the standings.

That's the thing though. As long as a team isn't obviously tanking for high draft choices </looking north>, there's always hope (at least at the beginning of the season) that the team might be better than expected. I prefer that to cheering for losses.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by stignasty

That's the thing though. As long as a team isn't obviously tanking for high draft choices </looking north>, there's always hope (at least at the beginning of the season) that the team might be better than expected. I prefer that to cheering for losses.

Yeah, as much as high draft picks might be nice I can't ever convince myself to cheer for losses. I always cheer for my team to win.

That said, I'm excited for this year (first year as a STH). I'm looking forward to watching the development of our young guys. I'm not expecting a lot of wins though.

[Tiger]

Originally Posted by SebC

To be fair, it was always doubtful that Kipper would turn into '04 Kipper overnight.

People have to remember this, basically in '04 nobody knew who kipper was and he turned out great, IIRC i thought Sutter want toskula instead of kipper initially. Not saying Ramo or Berra will make us forget about him, but there is a chance of either of them being a good starter right away.

[the2bears]

The 1991-1992 Canucks. After 14 losing seasons in a row, they exploded to finish above .500 for the first time in ages.

[HOWITZER]

Originally Posted by Tiger

Not saying Ramo or Berra will make us forget about him, but there is a chance of either of them being a good starter right away.

And there's just as much chance that Ramo and Berra combined could stop less pucks than Stevie Wonder.

We won't know until at least 20 games in.

[Phaneufenstein]

Ducks went from picking 6th overall in 2012 to winning their division last year.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by HOWITZER

And there's just as much chance that Ramo and Berra combined could stop less pucks than Stevie Wonder.

We won't know until at least 20 games in.

I think that's closer to the common assumption. Everyone already assumes the Flames are going to tank and tank hard, so it's kind of pointless to say "But remember they could be bad too!!"
I think the point of this entire thread is to explore the idea (outside the common conception) that the Flames COULD be better than expected.

[Tiger]

Originally Posted by HOWITZER

And there's just as much chance that Ramo and Berra combined could stop less pucks than Stevie Wonder.

We won't know until at least 20 games in.

Are we talking Stevie Wonder in his prime or Stevie Wonder now. I am just wondering if your example is meaningful or a little extreme and not worth posting. Thanks

All I was stating is no one thought Kipper would be that good that soon, so we shouldn't write off the goalies yet like you seem to have.

[Macho0978]

In the end IMO how we perform is a win/win situation. Early in a rebuild going in with tons of question marks and a very young team I can't see this season being a disaster as we all have 0 expectations. What is the worst that can happen? Depends on who you talk to some people are all about getting the top pick some are about a quicker rebuild. If we play above our heads because guys like Knight, Monahan, Baertschi, Ramo, Cundari, Sieloff, Reinhart, Backlund, Wotherspoon, keep us competitive enough that we finish near the playoffs isn't that a good thing? If we finish deadlast in the NHL because our kids don't perform at a high level, I guess we get 1st or 2nd overall pick. If the kids don't play well but Giordano, Cams, Stajan, Hudler, Wideman, Stempniak, Glencross carry us all year is probably the worst scenario but if we are in a spot to sell at the deadline and guys like Cams and Stempniak are playing well enough to keep this team close to the race we should be able to gain assets for them

The only way this team makes the playoffs is if everyone plays above what we expect and we have no injuires. This probably is the worst scenario but as long as we don't buy even if we lose out first round in a sweep gaining experience for our young guys this quickly isn't terrible