For a team lacking in high-end offensive talent, Emile Poirier was one of the Flames' better hopes. He was coming off of a rookie pro season with the Adirondack Flames in which he'd scored 19 goals and 42 points over 55 games; what wasn't to like? He was second on the team in scoring as a 19-year-old, and likely would have been first had he gotten a couple more games in.
So expectations may have been somewhat high for his second season. After all, prospects are supposed to keep progressing, right? And he was a first round pick; whether fair or not, there's more expected of him.