[Caged Great]

A lot of the problem the team is facing is the lack of appearances the players made during the preseason together. For the majority of the preseason, the team played too many non NHL players due to the World Cup, Injury, and lack of a contract.

So for the first two weeks, we are going through the preseason. Unfortunately, all the other teams are actually prepared for the start of the year and the Flames are playing catch up. It is just bad luck that they now go through a stretch where it's elite team after elite team.

The Flames need to be able to tread water by the 20 game mark. Last year they had 15 points at the 20 game mark. They need to best that by 4 or 5. If they can be close to a PPG, they will be fine as the schedule from mid november through march is relatively easy by comparison.

At the end of Nov, starting at the 20th, only 2/7 are against decent teams (Boston/NYI)

December, only 6/13 are against good teams (Min, Dal, SJ, TB, Ana X2).

January, only 3/13 are against good teams (SJ, Fla, Nash)

Until Feb 18 3/7 (Min, NYR, Pit)