"Mario and Carole" <vanhalenmcs DeleteThis @sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:B6Ppc.1457$qJ5.116806@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
> Calgary could be a one year wonder but a lot of it will depend on whether
> Kipper is the real deal and whether Jerome becomes to expensive for the
> Flames to keep. It's been a slow build for the Flames but they are finally
> reaping the rewards of the slow build. All I'm saying with my initial post
> is that we can take some elements of Calgary's game to be able to improve
> ours and the majority of that comes from solid defensive play.
There's no doubt that Iginla will become too expensive for the Flames to
keep under the current economic structure- all a team like the Wings has to
do is offer him another 2 or 3 million and he's too expensive for the Flames
to keep. The Flames did not have some 5-year-plan in place; they simply got
better with a better coach as well as a hot goalie (although whether he'll
continue to be as good year in and year out remains to be seen). The Oilers
have shown that they are capable of being responsible defensively under
MacT- he's been the best coach in the history of the team IMO as far as
that's concerned. The only problem is that without depth in the lineup,
there's not a whole lot the team can do as long they play with their current
style of hockey. The Oilers more than any team in the league aside from the
downtrodden Penguins and Sabres need for the economic imbalance in the
league to be addressed before they can ever hope to get as far as the Flames
did this year.
>When Calgary
> has had a two goal lead this year it's lights out but with us no lead is
> safe. We've been bemoaning our atrocious specialty team play for years now
> and year after year it seems to get even worse, this year being rock
bottom.
I'm not arguing that the special teams got worse, but I think it's more a
matter of the team being hurt by departures of proven talent in those areas.
When you lose talent, you lose depth- when you lose depth, then even 1 or 2
injuries can more seriously hurt your team.
> Even marginal improvements in these two areas could account for 5-10 extra
> points in the standings. We had at least a half dozen games this year
where
> be blew 2 or more goal leads and late third period leads. Winning those
> games turns us from a non-playoff team to challenging for a division
title.
> No doubt we had are share of problems this year with injuries, the whole
> Comrie fiasco and Salo's poor play but somehow the team still battled and
> came within a whisker of making the playoffs. The ingredients are here for
> success but the organizations mind set needs to improve the overall work
> ethic of the guys on the team. It's all about mentality and the choice to
> play 60 full minutes. Daryl brought that concept to Calgary and the Oiler
> fans myself included can admire what Calgary is doing but I'm also left
> saying why not us?
MacT managed to get a very good season out of a goaltender that everyone
knows has done nothing since then. I think that as long as he doesn't have
to deal with losing more and more veteran talent every year, MacT is a good
enough coach to keep the Oilers competitive and solid defensively every
season. Like I said before, I don't think it's fair to judge a man who has
to play with one arm tied behind his back almost every year. Sure, the
Flames did better, but they also spent more on their roster than the Oilers
did. Yes, it's only about 4-5 million more than the Oilers had, but let's
imagine that the Oilers had that extra money and were able to sign a guy
like Nedved at the START of the last season rather than near the trade
deadline when it was almost too late...
Ragnarok73
--
"Life is warfare and the sojourn of a stranger in a strange land." - Marcus
Aurelius
>> Stay informed about: K Lowe and Mac T take notes... 
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