What happened to the Flames from 2005-2009?

[Jdes91]

Why did they keep getting bounced out of the first round after making it to the finals in 2004? Why were they eliminated by the Ducks in 06, the Wings in 07 and the Sharks in 08? Was the west too strong? Did they truly waste Iginla's prime? Or did they just not have enough talent...

Click to read more...

 

[Flames Fanatic]

Not enough offensive depth, the game started to speed up post lockout and we were still pretty slow, Phaneuf never living up to potential, the West was pretty strong overall in that time frame too, crap drafting, trading draft picks like candy, obsession with washed up players fixing our problems (Amonte, Cujo, Nolan, etc).

Iggy's prime was wasted yes.

 

[FLAMESFAN]

Also those series losses could come down to just a couple plays that if they went the other we we win the series.

 

[Anglesmith]

Just variance, to be honest. The team showed the capability to win in each of those first-round losses.

 

[Mobiandi]

Just variance, to be honest. The team showed the capability to win in each of those first-round losses.

They were way out of their depth in 07. The other exits were definitely there for the taking, especially the Ducks one

 

[Body Checker]

Lack of skill up front.

When you say it was three close series and could of went either way well if a couple of positions were upgraded - say another 1st liner replaces a 3rd liner and everyone else moves down a slot on the depth chart - then that would of been enough to at least win one of those series.

Cinderella teams in the NHL in the last 15-20 years always fall short at the end. Why? Because they lack skill over the top teams

 

[Ace Rimmer]

One of those years they had so many injuries (and no cap space) that they had to dress a 20 man roster once or twice down the stretch. I can't remember which.

 

[super6646]

One of those years they had so many injuries (and no cap space) that they had to dress a 20 man roster once or twice down the stretch. I can't remember which.

Weren’t we dressing 18 people some nights in 2009? It was definitely that year when we imploded down the stretch and just missed out playing St. Louis (who got swept by Vancouver) when instead iced a crippled lineup against an emerging hawks team.

f*** being a fan of this team suuuuuuucks.

 

[Khrox]

Weren’t we dressing 18 people some nights in 2009? It was definitely that year when we imploded down the stretch and just missed out playing St. Louis (who got swept by Vancouver) when instead iced a crippled lineup against an emerging hawks team.

Yeah I remember that. Pretty sure we had one of our D playing wing as well

 

[JPeeper]

No depth and the teams we were playing all had depth.

San Jose series was only close because Phaneuf was a beast that year. Blackhawks series was never close. Can't remember the Anaheim series coming out of the lockout.

Iggy's prime was wasted because we drafted HORRIBLY and never surrounded him with anything more than 2 or maybe 3 decent pieces.

 

[Janks]

No depth and the teams we were playing all had depth.

San Jose series was only close because Phaneuf was a beast that year. Blackhawks series was never close. Can't remember the Anaheim series coming out of the lockout.

Iggy's prime was wasted because we drafted HORRIBLY and never surrounded him with anything more than 2 or maybe 3 decent pieces.

One of the biggest takeaways for me as well. Despite every fan knowing that Conroy and Langkow (and Lombardi/Cammalleri etc) weren't the ideal 1C for Iggy, the only time we added real legit C talent was Olli Jokinen. Imagine if the Flames went for Getzlaf instead of Phaneuf in 03. Both Western boys that Sutter would have loved. I seem to remember the knock on Getzlaf being lazy, but he never didn't have skill and is a big body.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Weren’t we dressing 18 people some nights in 2009? It was definitely that year when we imploded down the stretch and just missed out playing St. Louis (who got swept by Vancouver) when instead iced a crippled lineup against an emerging hawks team.

f*** being a fan of this team suuuuuuucks.

Yeah that's the year, there were 18 players on the bench and I believe last game of the season two of them had less than a minute of ice time due to injury and Phaneuf was skating on what was later determined to be a broken ankle.

Depth was the issue only because half the top six was injured.

 

[Kranix]

Darryl's tweaks

 

[Bounces R Way]

The lack of an elite #1 center.

Same as it ever was

 

[CraigsList]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

Darryl's tweaks

I always felt that the lack of success had a lot to do with Darryl building a team that he wanted to coach but couldn't. He probably could have gotten a lot more out of those teams had he been behind the bench.

 

[SmellOfVictory]

Just variance, to be honest. The team showed the capability to win in each of those first-round losses.

Yeah. Also I seem to recall Dutter hamstrung the Flames cap-wise in '09, which forced them to play a games late in the season with a short roster. Certainly didn't help anything during a year when they had one of their strongest teams.

 

[SmellOfVictory]

One of the biggest takeaways for me as well. Despite every fan knowing that Conroy and Langkow (and Lombardi/Cammalleri etc) weren't the ideal 1C for Iggy, the only time we added real legit C talent was Olli Jokinen. Imagine if the Flames went for Getzlaf instead of Phaneuf in 03. Both Western boys that Sutter would have loved. I seem to remember the knock on Getzlaf being lazy, but he never didn't have skill and is a big body.

There were a couple of opportunities for the Flames to add/keep a high end #1C; they didn't have to trade Savard, since they fired the coach he was fighting with a couple of weeks later. They also probably could've gotten Thornton, and even if they'd had to give up Regehr the tradeoff would have been well worth it.

 

[Iggys Dome]

One of the most frustrating stretches as a fan, I'd much rather take the drought from 2010-2014 than the constant first round heart break during those years. Of course I was pretty young, but it still hurt as a mf given the high that 04 was (I thought we'd be making deep runs every year with Kipper and Iggy).

 

[Spikey]

They kept getting older and lack of depth. That's why they blew up the team and started rebuilding.

 

[DCDM]

No depth and the teams we were playing all had depth.

San Jose series was only close because Phaneuf was a beast that year. Blackhawks series was never close. Can't remember the Anaheim series coming out of the lockout.

Iggy's prime was wasted because we drafted HORRIBLY and never surrounded him with anything more than 2 or maybe 3 decent pieces.

Close, hard-fought series with game 7 on home ice, and the Flames went and laid a fat egg in front of their home crowd, getting shut out 3-0.

Such a f***ing waste of a banner year. Won the division, and gone with a whimper.

 

[Flameshomer]

A sick obsession with Olli Jokinen where we were seemingly always chasing him, only to finally get him and realize he was the opposite type of player we needed.