I strongly believe that for good teams to become great (championship) teams they have to find their way through this stuff. They all go through it...even the mighty Oilers and Flames of the '80's had to take a couple shots to the mouth before getting over the hump.
Almost all recent winners had to figure it out the hard way...even Pittsburgh with the new round of players prior to the last two wins. Tampa has been through the meat grinder and they know how to keep the pedal down now.
Flames are probably banking on Neal, Smith, Frolik, Gio to help lead these younger guys through it. We will see if they can get over the hump this, realistically, is the first time through with expectations. I don't think they are willfully staying in Neutral....they have to figure out how to become closers against desperate teams at a time of year when they are pretty much set. Carry that into the playoffs.
I am cheering hard but they need to find the next gear...Gio has it, arguing that Frolik and Smith have picked it up. We will see if the rest are ready to graduate.
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This Signature line was dated so I changed it.
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