Calgary Flames Are Still A Work In Progress

After the incredible season the Calgary Flames had last year in which they made the play-offs for the first time in what seemed like centuries, many fans were ‘optimistically’ hoping the rebuild was over.

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The off-season acquisitions of superstar defenceman Dougie Hamilton and speedy Czech Michael Frolik primed the Calgary Flames to have a great season. Expectations were sky-high for the franchise that was only in their third full year of a rebuild.

I like so many others called the ‘stat geeks’ who needed spreadsheets to comprehend hockey, dead wrong, about their predictions the Calgary Flames were going to regress. It seemed ridiculous.

We had two huge off-season acquisitions, not to mention the further development of Sean Monahan, and Johnny Gaudreau.

Couple that with full seasons out of play-off heroes Sam Bennett and the ‘irrelevant’ Micheal Ferland, and the Calgary Flames were sure to be better than the team they were last year right?

Wrong, the Calgary Flames have suffered in just about every facet of hockey, from poor defence, spotty goaltending, terrible face-off totals, and league worst power-play and penalty kill.

It hasn’t been all bad however, as Johnny Gaudreau has been more fun to watch than an irritated John Tortorella post-game interview. T.J. Brodie has looked worthy of a Norris nomination, and Sam Bennett has shown he might just be the best of the bunch on this Calgary Flames team for years to come with his combination of grit and skill.

After an 11 game home winning streak everyone was back on the play-off bandwagon, myself included, as the Calgary Flames seemed to be resolving almost all of their major issues and playing a heck of a lot like the team last year.But much like the analytics crew predicted, the winning was unsustainable.

The Calgary Flames have just gone 1-3-1 on their five game road trip made up against weak competition. Their first game was against the Oilers, with a sub .500 record (again), next was the Devils with the league’s worst offence. After that was the NHL’s worst team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Then it was the Hurricanes with a middling record, and a struggling Dallas Star team, who the Calgary Flames have beat twice already this year, hardly teams that would put the fear of God into anyone.

The fact the Calgary Flames couldn’t have more success against those teams despite having a relatively healthy roster suggests that its just not their year. Any illusions that the Calgary Flames have become contenders have been dispelled through their inconsistent play leading to a 21-23-3 record.

It isn’t all doom and gloom however, the Calgary Flames still have a great core to build around in Gaudreau, Bennett, Monahan, Brodie and Hamilton. They still have some exciting prospects in the pipeline such as Poirier, Jankowski, Kylington, Anderson, Gillies, and Hickey.

But most of all, any pain and suffering felt by the fans this year will lead to us being compensated on draft day with a high pick in a draft with lots of players that would fit brilliantly in the Calgary Flames organization.

Don’t forget about deadline day either, because the Calgary Flames possess some valuable trade chips in Russell, Hudler and David Jones, who could all fetch something at the trade deadline day.

This season just wasn’t meant to be. The Calgary Flames will not be making the play-offs this year, and have some serious question marks about their group. Brighter days are ahead however, Sam Bennett and Johnny Gaudreau have proven their going to be elite players for them, and Calgary will likely be adding another young superstar to their organization in the off-season via the draft.

Oh, and the Oilers are still worse than we are in year 157 of their rebuild.

Next: Calgary Flames Lean On Sophomore Johnny Gaudreau

Is it too early to count out the Flames? What day are you looking forward to most, the draft or deadline day? Let us know in the comment section below.

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