ike most, all I want to see in the end is a winning product. I do agree with Mayday though, pls lose the window flags..lol[/Q
The cap makes it very hard to fix past mistakes ( If not mistaken, I think Tucker and Raycroft are still even on the payroll from past 'buyouts'). I'm deflated at the outcome, but I don't feel MLSE isn't 'trying' to put a winning product on the ice. Burke is brought in, he brought in RW, Kessell, many excellent young hopeful like Gadiner. Signs Liles, and Grabs... RW didn't pan out, so enter Carlyle.
Missing the playoff sucks bad, but it wasn't like management didn't try to improve. Ottawa also has been trying very hard, and like Calgary, sit very close to missing the playoffs also.
LUOTE]
The Sens are more than likely to make the playoffs (
http://www.senatorsextra.com/main/less-and-less-likely-sens-will-see-playoff-aspirations-slip-away) and that is with spending a lot less.
The Sens spend $51 of the cap with 12.6M leftover. In their re-building plan they specifically said that they would not spend to the cap.
The Laffs and the Habs spending leaves them with 1.1 and 2M...and no playoffs revenue. I accept that part of their cap spending may be on players long gone but I think that applies to pretty much every team. Some management just seems better at getting a better on-ice product for less $$$.
I was at a Habs -Laffs game a few weeks ago and I will state again that the Habs owners are in for a rude awakening next year. As with the Sens the majority of the season tickets are bought by regular folks, not companies, and those regular folks are not going to pony up in the same numbers next year to watch the same crappy last place finishers. The same thing happens in Ottawa...the little guy's disposable income is not as forgiving of bad teams.
In Toronto that is not the case...the companies still buy seasons tickets and the rabid fans know that they have to buy because there are 1 million other rabies infected fans waiting in line behind them to pick up the crumbs of a shitty team
Toronto fans will therefore perpetuate the mediocre on-ice product forever. And MLSE thanks you for your rabid frothings and your hard earned dollars which are easy monies for MLSE.
In these cases there is no correlation that says spending $ gives you better results.