Great little video here on the Flames' first season:
Willi Plett now looks remarkably like Will Ferrell....
Willi Plett now looks remarkably like Will Ferrell....
1980-81 Calgary Flames (first season)
- Thread starter The Panther
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Staniowski
Registered User
Remember watching the Flames several times that first season, especially in the playoffs. Reinhart and Nilsson were their two standout players. They were both beautiful to watch in that wide-open era
vikash1987
Registered User
GlitchMarner
There was a Glitch and my username was switched
People harp on the decline of the Maple Leafs and rag on the Oilers, but the Flames have been quite irrelevant for about 30 years, sadly.
They had some very talented players in the 80s and early 90s. They should have done better with those MacInnis/Fleury teams.
The team was largely irrelevant in the late Fleury/early Iginla years and then had that one Cinderella run to the Cup Finals. After that, the Flames were a solid regular season team that lost regularly in the first round of the playoffs. They had a couple of good seasons during the Gaudreau Era but couldn't get far in the playoffs. Now they're kind of just another lackluster team.
They had some very talented players in the 80s and early 90s. They should have done better with those MacInnis/Fleury teams.
The team was largely irrelevant in the late Fleury/early Iginla years and then had that one Cinderella run to the Cup Finals. After that, the Flames were a solid regular season team that lost regularly in the first round of the playoffs. They had a couple of good seasons during the Gaudreau Era but couldn't get far in the playoffs. Now they're kind of just another lackluster team.
Staniowski
Registered User
Vernon wasn't the biggest problem with those Flames teams, though he wasn't always great. The teams had more structural problems.
I agree. Vernon was slightly above-average for the late-1980s and about average for the mid-1990s as goalies go. He wasn't a stud, but he was good enough as a rookie to take down the '86 Oilers, to win the '89 Cup, and to win the '97 Cup as Conn Smythe winner. He was really the least of the Flames' problems.
For other issues with those Flames' clubs of the late-80s / early-90s, we might ask ourselves how, as defending Cup champs, they lost a playoff game to a sub-.500 club by a score of 12 - 4.
PlayersLtd
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- Mar 6, 2019
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When I watch videos like that it's really hard not to laugh at the state of hockey goaltending in the 70's and 80's. The butterfly was like when neanderthals invented the wheel. Why the heck did it take so long??
His average goals saved per hockeyreference was almost always below average. His save percentage was also below league average, despite playing on a defensive juggernaut.
So I blame him.
Safety.
Goal tending was developed in an era where goalies didn't wear masks, so going down on shots all the time made it risky they'd get hit in the face by a shot. And if they stayed down, they could get hit by the puck, a stuck, or a skate.
It still took about 20 years after masks for the butterfly to come long regularly(which was actually used by Glenn Hall and then Tony Esposito) but my guess is by then it was a situation where the stand up style was developed under circumstances that no longer applied but that fact was lost on the Hockey people who still insisted stand up was the way to go. I was a kid in the 80s and even then the mindset was standing up was the way to play.
Lloyd Percival actually wrote a book about effective goal tending in-the 40s?- in which he argued that 90% of goals went into the bottom foot of the net and therefore this part of the net needs to be defended better even if it means leaving the top of the net open more, but the Hockey minds ignored him.
I will always be grateful to the 1980-81 edition of the Calgary Flames for their trading of Dan Bouchard to the Quebec Nordiques for Jamie Hislop. That trade turned the Nordiques in to a playoff contender. Don't recall how the Flames fared.
Reggie Lemelin and Pat Riggin did pretty good.
Weird enough they ended up trading a 1st rdp in '82 for Don Edward's though.
But that Bouchard trade mystified me. Hislop was a 3rd liner and Bouchard was still a first string goalie. I guess Fletcher loved the big, grinder types as much as Ferguson and Caron.
Hislop quite often rode shotgun on a line with Peter and Anton Stastny. At the time of the trade, Jamie had 19 goals and 41 points in 50 games with the Nords in 1980-81. His production fell off after the trade.
True. Forgot about that.
Dude had a good shooting percentage over his career too if I'm not mostsken
His shooting percentage with Quebec (with the Stastnys) was an incredible 22.1. Peter would tell Jamie to skate in front of the opposition net, and the Stastnys would bounce the puck off of him and in to the net. His stick was still hot when he arrived in Calgary: 19. 4.
vikash1987
Registered User
One of Patrick Roy’s goaltending idols growing up in Quebec was Daniel Bouchard. His mom knew someone who knew Bouchard, and he was able to get an autographed goalie stick from him.
I don’t remember if this was when Bouchard was in Atlanta/Calgary, or if this was after the 1980-81 trade to Quebec—in which case, Roy would’ve bern a teenager. Either way, a fun story.
I don’t remember if this was when Bouchard was in Atlanta/Calgary, or if this was after the 1980-81 trade to Quebec—in which case, Roy would’ve bern a teenager. Either way, a fun story.
Roy did grow up in QC, right?
So it'd make sense
Ironically enough, I've heard Bouchard was as ornery as Roy and- Bouchard at least- wasn't too popular with teammates. How true? Who knows.
All right. Well, I'm not saying Vernon was a stud in net. I'm saying he was about average overall, which, given the Flames' incredible depth at the time, was enough to win a Cup with.
I would not say that The Flames were ever really, a "defensive juggernaut". They had one great season near the top, defensively (the year they won the Cup), and maybe three seasons total being above average ('89, '90, '91), but otherwise they were just middle of the pack.
(I still can't believe Vernon made the Hall of Fame... Good Lord...)
That's just it- they were top in fewest SA almost every season under Crisp but their Save% was around average at best
He should have never made the ballot
Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
Equipment wasn't exactly conducive to that style. Ignoring the fact that butterfly isn't exactly the be-all, end-all of goaltending, of course...
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