Originally Posted by
calcheyup
Thank you. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only sane one left here. Reality check: after a pretty good season where they unquestionably exceeded preseason expectations almost entirely by virtue of the acquisitions made, Red Deer got demolished by the Tigers, who were demolished by the Hitmen, who were demolished by the Wheat Kings, who are in the process of being demolished by the Rockets. And although some guys stepped up and showed something this year, some guys, like Pawlenchuk, Fleury, and Musil (aside from the first month of the season) fell flat. Quite honestly, we don't even know what we can expect from those guys next year. As for Bleackley, he was a 1st rounder who wasn't even on Team Canada's radar this year. That's...pretty uninspiring. He did start to play significantly better before he got hurt, but the games he did play this year hardly sold me that he is going to come back next year and be a top forward in this league. Like it or not, those are the realities that we're facing right now.
As it currently stands, Red Deer has a pretty good team - if Fleury comes back with his head in the game next year, I really, really like the Rebels blueline especially - but this "we're one or two pieces away from being Memorial Cup contenders" notion just doesn't pass the taste test. I get having some hometown bias and optimism, but some posters here need to cool it on the Kool-Aid a little bit and come back down to reality.