After Theo Fleury won the Stanley Cup with the Calgary the Franchise in Calgary was in rebuilding mode the next season. Cliff Fletcher Calgary's General manager went to Toronto and that's when calgary went south.The flames lost Lanny Mcdonald to retirement,then on pg 110 the trigger was pulled and sent Doug Gilmour,Jamie Macoun,Ric Nattress,Rick Wamsley and Prospect forward Kent Manderville,and in return from Toronto the Flames got Gary Leeman,Michel Petit,Jeff Reese,Craig Berube and prospect Alexander Godynyuk.When Cliff Fletcher left Calgary he wanted his players and he took the character out of Calgary and took his players and made a team in Toronto.Theo Fleury said it was a terrible trade and after Calgary lost their core they really needed a leader and while trouble times were brewing in Calgary and with several new coaches over the time like Brian Sutter and Theo was in Calgary they had a different perspective compared to how Theo played hockey. When Calgary was hiring coaches the coaches teached to play defensively and play games that were 1-0 or 2-1 because the coach thought defense first and just dumped the puck in the offensive zone and get back for defense and back check.The flames played this style at the time because the team was young and inexperienced players so they would do defensive drills and watching film. Theo was used to high pace short practices where offence was number one and it was a big change for Theo and he did not like the coaching he was getting. During games Theo took it upon himself that he would have to score and win the games for the flames and that is exactly what he did.It was not the same without the Cup team fr Fleury the passes he would make would be good passes but having inexperinced players the other guys couldnt score off the oppertunitys and would be in the wrong positon. Theo drank and did more drugs because of the stress in his life about his childhood and how the team was doing.But then the most shocking trade happened in Calgary if you want to know what happened you will have to read my next blog.
By HC
I have to agree with you Hunter because he was this really good player playing with a very young team and that had to be frustrating for Theo because Theo seemed like he had to be doing all of the work and all of the goal scoring by himself The other guys seemed to be somewhat inexperienced. And i have to agree the trade was somewhat shocking.
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