Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Im not sure about that.
When a team is in the lottery ball draw one season, it is awful difficult to expect them to play in the post-season the very next year....and if they do that is a truly remarkable progression.
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Two years ago, the core of this team not only made the playoffs, but won a round. Last season they imploded partly because the flaws in the system inevitably showed up and their unlikely "luck" ran out, but moreso due to atrocious, near historically poor goaltending (I posted this before, but it's telling that none of the 3 goalies Calgary used as their #1 last season could land a position as even an NHL backup this season).
Given that they addressed the goaltending issue, and I expected some growth from their young players, my minimum bar for success was for the team to get back to where they were 2 seasons ago. And they've made it to that bar (though doing it as a really streaky team - they got 19 of their wins (42%) in 21 games (25% of the season).
If they can come back and beat Anaheim, I'll consider the season
really successful - i.e. it exceeded my minimum expectations.
Edit: Oh, and every team that misses the playoffs, even if only by a tie-breaker, is "in the lottery ball draw", so I'm not sure how that can set expectations.