The pinnacle is the Cup. There should be no other expectation heading into the season. Once the teams get a lay of the land you can adjust your expectations but every now and again an underdog establishes itself in a league and right now the Flames have no pressure. Go out, play as a team, win and lose as a team and try to win that trophy that every team plays for. Every team in the league starts at 0 points, anything can happen so a defeatist attitude would be the wrong impression to leave on the kids of the team. I loved Feasters interview and how he backed Franklin down, he believes in this team as much as Chicago believes in theirs and I think that is endearing.
I know logic speaks against that, that it speaks to a green Flames team that has about as much chance winning at this level as the prima donna teams we iced the past few seasons but I don't think this team has the sense of entitlement it had once garnered from that one run and I think because of that its going to be a fresh feeling in the locker room. It only takes 5 or 6 games to get on a good role and the Flames play the harder part of there schedule really early with a 2 game, 4 game and 5 game road trip strewn amongst the first 17 games. Put together a great record in the first 5th of the season and it could turn into something that no one would expect.
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