So, back to the article, which I thought was excellent.
What stood out to me most was this: McIndoe flags four teams from the past few seasons as prior examples of those that defied the odds for a time, but ultimately conformed to the metrics. the Dallas Stars, the Minnesota Wild, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. I have said before that I will not be a whit surprised to see the Flames regress and repeat this same pattern next year. But, there is still no other way to look at what has happened this season as good news.
What do 3/4 of those other teams have in common? They are either presently very good teams, or they look like they will be very soon. The Wild look like they could win a round or two this year. The Avalanche and the Stars both look like playoff teams that had a bad couple of months. The Maple Leafs are terrible.
What does this mean for the Calgary Flames? If I had to guess, I would say that being more like the Wild, Avalanche and Stars in their current franchise trajectory, it suggests that while they may stumble a couple more times in the next year or two, there are reasons to expect that they will find success sooner than later.
Maybe that is something that can be said for bad possession teams who do find some unexpected success? That they are doing something right now which will bode well for them in the future...Well, for all of them except for the Leafs.
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