Mine is low but I still follow the team close, and watch every game. Friday night I was busy but just didn't look at my text messages until I finished the game on Saturday morning. It was tough watching 2 losses in yeah same day.
My expectations going into last year was to be in the McDavid hunt. When the season happened I was really happy and excited. When Treliving got Hamilton and Frolik in the summer my expectations rose and I fully expected to make the playoffs again.
Now that we are 20+ games in I am disappointed but not shocked. This was always a possibility so the team sucking is not the end of the world. This is not the Iginla/Kipper years when our 2 best stars are in the twilight of their careers and no one was in place to take the torch (remember the media thinking Bourque would be the next goal scoring leader of the team?). The Flames have 5 excellent pieces 25 and under on the roster. Gaudreau is a budding superstar, Brodie is looking more like the number 1 guy on his pairing now rather than number 2. Bennett is an exciting rookie that plays such an entertaining style. Monahan and Hamilton are struggling but I still think both are going to get back to the level we saw from them last year in terms of production and play.
A top pick next summer will help as will the maturation and progression of some prospects (hoping former first rounders Jankowski, Porier, Klimchuck step up). While this is a bit of a lost season the team is still positioned extremely well for the future and in 2017-18 I really hope they are ready to take a run at a very deep playoff run.
Next year will be tough to improve the team from the outside with so much bad money on the books (Wideman, Raymond, Engellend, Smid, Bollig) but those players and their near $25M in combined salary will be gone next summer leaving the team flexibility to really add to the group and make a run
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