Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaskal
I'm not necessarily hoping for a suck season, but that is the current reality. A lot of things went right last season, and in the offseason a lot of teams in the already stacked West have made roster improvements.
I will, however, still throw minor tantrums every time we lose.
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The Flames lost a lot of games last year because they didn't have the skill to get the goals when they needed them most. They lost a bunch of contests because Reto Berra thinks games are 55 minutes long. They were too small to overcome a number of teams they faced on a regular basis.
They got bigger and tougher in the off season. Their front-line players are still undersized, but the team as a whole should be difficult to push around. Of the prospects most likely to make the team out of camp, two are high-end skill wingers. Mason Raymond scored 19 goals and 45 points last season, he's a perfect 2nd/3rd line tweener swingman.
It remains to be seen how the goaltending will shake down, but we as fans have to feel a lot better about Ramo/Hiller than we did about Ramo/Berra.
If everyone stayed healthy, if nobody took a step back, if they avoid a stretch in January where they don't score a goal for a week and a half, basically if everything breaks their way, a case can be made that this team wins another 8 games. Which puts them right in the hunt for the final playoff spot.
That probably won't happen. Guys will get hurt, there are a couple evil road trips, and counting on rookies to be 3 WAR players is a recipe for disaster. A two or three win improvement is probably in line with reality.
