[bigrangy]

Last year, the Flames got off to an awful start and then lost their best player to injury for a long stretch. The season seemed over, but it wasn't. The team rallied and seemed to fully buy in to the new system, and they rode that hot streak all the way into a playoff berth.

This year, the Flames have been very inconsistent. Win 1 lose 1, play great then get embarrassed, etc. The top line was on fire but have cooled off, the second line has been inconsistent, and now the secondary scoring is finally starting to come. Likewise, the defense seems to be coming around, but now the goaltending is just average.

The Flames haven't been able to have any consistency so far this season; when the offense is clicking, the defense falls apart and vice versa.

We saw last year that this team can be very good when it's firing on all cylinders (they were something like 5th in the league since Gaudreau's injury). Fortunately, the Flames haven't put themselves in as big of a hole this season, but this is a team that was expected to do much better after plugging their two biggest holes in the off-season.

Are the Flames going to start playing how they were expected to and fight their way into the top 10? Or are they going to waffle between good and bad and settle in right on the bubble? Or, worst case, is a collapse incoming?

What do you think?