Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
I mean, you inadvertently summed up middling pretty nicely.
|
I would say middling is battling for third place in the division or a wildcard spot year after year. Basically the 07-12 Flames (outside of 2009 where they actually looked legit before injuries). This current team is more of a yo-yo. They haven’t missed the playoffs twice in a row since they broke their 5 year drought in 2015. They have only made the playoffs twice in a row once going from first in the west to 8th and getting in by winning a play-in round after the pandemic halted the season. It could be argued the 2 Covid years they were middling.
We saw progression through those years as well
2015 - 3rd in Pacific/8th in the West
2016- bottom 5 in the league
2017- first wildcard, 7th in the west
2018- 10th in the west
2019- 1st in the Pacific/West, 2nd in the NHL
2020- 8th in the west
2021- 5th in the Canadian division
2022- 1st in the pacific
2023- 9th place in the west.
2007-2012 they were 8th, 7th, 5th, 10th, 10th, 9th in the west. That to me is middling. They currently are a team that will overachieve and raise expectations one year and underachieve and lower expectations the next. By all accounts this year should be a bounce back based on a near decade of results. The core of this team is different now as is the GM so maybe they changes but until it does it is easy to follow the narrative this team is going to be much improved this year.