On a side note, I hate the term "dead puck era". It unnecessarily derides a time when the hockey was pretty good, at least from my perspective. There were the "big 4" in the Western Conference (Dallas, Colorado, Detroit, and St. Louis) and they had polarizing styles of play. The Blues and Stars tended to play defensive styles, so they, along with the Devils in the East, seemed to have the formula to thwart powerhouse teams like the Wings and Avs.
It's not surprising that less talented clubs like the Ducks and Flames found some success in that era by concentrating on limiting chances and having taking advantage of amazing goaltending. Having one or two true offensive gamebreakers up front seemed to be part of that formula too. That was the only way they could win. Lots of people mistook this as a lack of entertainment but I found it to be an interesting contrast in styles, not to mention that David vs. Goliath underdog metaphor.
As for this version of the Flames, the playoff outcome will be what eventually writes the tale of what this team turned out to be. Were they a bunch of soft skilled small guys that could outskate everyone in the regular season but couldn't ramp it up when the going gets tough? Or were they a deep team that could hurt you from every spot in their lineup, winning games no matter what style the game took? They've shown signs of the latter but we'll see in a few weeks!
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