[SuperMatt18]

The franchise has been terrible outside of the 80's.

For my entire life that I can remember (born in 88) the Flames have been at best mediocre with one good playoff run, and a couple of good regular seasons (05-06, 18-19, 21-22)

But really maybe the problems start with the fan base. As a fan base I feel like the Flames fan base is very negative and pessimistic compared to other fan bases, and really based on the results we've had as a team it's justified. But sometimes I think that maybe that carries through to the players who also don't seem to believe in themselves or that they can actually win a big game or series.

We make fun of Oilers fans for being too Optimistic but even though that franchise has been even worse than ours for the last 20 years they still always go into every season believing that the team will be good.

Maybe this fanbase could actually use a little more of that and be a little more optimistic. I feel like coming into this series the entire fanbase was tense and nervous about this series, where I felt the Oilers fanbase was more positive and were cherishing the opportunity for the BOA...maybe it shouldn't be surprising that it appears that seems to have carried over to the teams too.

Flames have looked tense and nervous, Oilers have looked extremely confident. The on ice play has matched the fan base mentalities coming into the series.