[Cali Panthers Fan]

As much as it pains me to say this, Edmonton is probably one of the best teams in the West this year, at least based on talent. I think they're deeply flawed when it comes to the playoffs, but in the regular season they're going to win a lot of games. I think the only teams that are better are Colorado and Vegas when healthy. Their top end talent can break a game that's close, or help them win even when they aren't carrying the play.

That's what happened last night. It's probably something you're going to see a lot of this year with Edmonton. They'll look bad winning many nights. That's why they'll lose easily in the playoffs, but in the regular season, you can win a lot of games simply by having McDavid and Draisaitl, and a lethal power play.

Fear not, intrepid Flames fans, this team is actually quite competitive, even if we don't have a comparable top end talent. There are few teams in the league that do, so we can't stress about that too much. What you want to see is exactly what we saw last night. Cohesive play, drive possession in the offensive end, especially 5 on 5, physical responses and camaraderie, and timely goal scoring. The only thing missing was the last point, and I think that's due to it being game 1. They had chances, but couldn't bury them. They fumbled the puck a lot more than you would normally see in an NHL game. That's just rust of not playing for over a week as well.

I suspect that they will actually be solidly in a playoff spot by the time the year is over, just a hunch. I don't know what happens from there, but job one is getting to the playoffs, and this team is good enough to do it, especially in a weak Pacific.