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It took this long to do something so obvious? The
first thing we thought when the Flames fired Greg
Gilbert the day following Darryl
Sutter's dismissal from the San Jose Sharks was that the team thought
they had their man. Then Flame GM Craig Button revealed that they hadn't
begun their search yet. A couple of interesting things: a) Sutter wasn't
Button's first choice; and b) Sutter isn't the cheapest option. There will
be many that believe that Ted
Nolan should have been hired. Let's face it, Ted
Nolan is the sentimental choice because most fans believe he's been
shafted by the NHL 'old boys network'. But these fans also like to compare
the mid-90s Sabres to the current Flames - young, feisty with great veteran
goaltending. Maybe they're right. But so much of the Sabres' success could
be directly attributed to Dominek Hasek, that it's hard to guage Nolan's
role. With Sutter though, the impact is obvious. Defense, defense, defense.
From a fantasy perspective it will not make Jarome
Iginla, Craig
Conroy or Chris
Drury owners very happy. The former Sharks bench boss only cares about
one thing - did I mention defense? He believes that offensive opportunities
are generated through play in your own end. So what does this mean? It means
that while those of you with Roman
Turek may have just found your secret weapon, those of you counting on
Iginla return to last year's form are likely to be sorely disappointed. It
doesn't mean he won't score. It just means that the opportunities he was
getting earlier in the year that just weren't going in are going to be a lot
less frequent. |
