When does a good start become a good season?

[ComixZone]

I love the start, but one big stat to be wary of is the fact that shooting percentages for players who have scored 2 or more goals so far are almost all a career high - which is hard to think they'll all be able to maintain.

(Last 4 years, this year in bold)

Glencross: 16.1, 23.6, 16.3, 28.6
Hudler: 9.5, 19.7, 17.9, 20
Monahan: 30.8
Giordano: 4.2, 7.2, 6.9, 13.3
Jones: 17.8, 14.7, 4.8, 20

I think Cammy, Stajan and Jones returning will be huge. It'll also be very interesting to see how this team reacts to dropping a game or two in a row.

[Stupid]

I would have picked the option: Not a lot but it does inspire optimism.

[OzSome]

Just enjoy the moment. I am happy the way they are playing right now and not expecting anything more right now. If they keep up then it will be pretty awesome.

[edn88]

I think their record at the end of the five game road trip will be telling... There are some tough divisional opponents. And by that time there should be a decision on #23s future

[Calgary4LIfe]

I think the rebuild came in three stages:

1) Darryl Sutter era - revamped the scouting department (basically hired scouts), and helped to get the Heat going for better control of prospect development. Under his watch, zeroed-in on the "high hockey IQ" component to the prospects. A very long and frustrating time for the most part for Flames fans hungry for young blood, but as a whole, he started turning things around near the end. Though he was 100% in 'win now' mode (and without argument, too long at that), he at least laid the foundation of Calgary's drafting and development org.

2) Feaster taking over and stopped trading the future for the now. Added additional key personnel on top of what was existing.

3) Year 'one' of our rebuild now - a full-blown rebuild.

Edmonton's rebuild is lasting so long because they didn't do steps 1-3. They just did step 3. Their scouting department sucked - terrible rates of hits on their later picks. It shows with the lack of support and depth players. I guess you can't just find these guys every year on the UFA market after all.

Calgary has a lot of depth already in their prospect base. Of course not everyone is going to make it. Not everyone is going to live up to their draft hypes. However, there are a lot of LEGITIMATE prospects in the system. A few projects, a few blue-chippers, a few unexpected risers, and of course a bit of a few disappointments (though those are getting weeded out fast).

I don't think the rebuild will take years like the Oilers has. I had my serious reservations about some of the trades that Feaster pulled off (especially acquiring Jones, who has far exceeded my expectations). I like that he is surrounding the kids with good vets, and acquired players that fit in the system they are trying to play in (like Galiardi). A good GM will talk with his coach and acquire players that fit what the Coach really needs, and they definitely have an eye for the future.

Will it all pay off? Only time will tell. Lots of people will argue and say that one would have to have rose-colored glasses to think highly of the prospects in the system right now. Of course not all will make it - but there is good depth there, and they will all battle and push to earn their spots on the team moving forward. Depth is something that is completely underrated - Edmonton has blue-chippers that are very difficult to acquire through trades and UFA signings, but key depth players also seem pretty tough to find. Calgary is building through culture and competition. Edmonton was built through draft pedigree and seemingly not much else. I am more confident that Calgary's rebuild will take a shorter time - and I fully expect the wheels to sort of fall off this season as there just isn't enough talent to compete at the moment, and pure hard work and enthusiasm doesn't last an 82 game season. If they don't improve after year 3 of the rebuild, I expect heads to fall, and that may be the very key difference between the rebuilds.

I voted for "the team is not as bad as some thought", but only because it was the closest choice. I think the team is over-performing right now, and they will fall back in the standings, but my expectation was that this is not a top 3 pick team right now (I think it will be next year) and they are better than most people gave them credit - but playoffs are definitely something that are a couple years away at the earliest.

[driveway]

Seriously fun and exciting, but way to early, means nothing and we will almost certainly regress into the bottom 5 by the end of the season.

Our possession stats are bad, not awful, but bad. We've given up - or come close to giving up - leads in every single game. That .333 winning percentage when leading after two is terrible. MacDonald has played well enough to win, but also poor enough to lose, those rebounds are terrifying.

Not to mention, we've spent significant portions of each game running around in our own end looking utterly lost and dominated.

We're better than I thought, I think the effort and foundation are there to build on and I'm enjoying watching the games, but I think it's vastly too early to get excited about our short-term potential, and I'm expecting a steady regression.

I think the first point at which we can make a serious assessment on where we are vs. the rest of the league will be around game 20. If we keep up this pace and have between 11-13 wins after 20 games I believe that a playoff position would be entirely possible and management should adjust their plans accordingly.

[EVERLAST]

Don't get too high

Don't get too low

[Sylvanfan]

Well I never would have thought this team would go 5 straight games scoring 3 plus goals this year. I think their defensive play is indicative of what will transpire this season, and things will normalize offensively for them. At least the home games have been good for those that shell out the money to attend them.

I hope for two things....there isn't any lamenting this hot start being the reason the team didn't get a top 3 pick....and that people aren't posting that Monahans first 5 games made the Flames burn up a year on a ELC for a player who struggled for most of the season.

[Kipper_3434]

At the end of the season.

[Psytic]

Im curious to see how they handle the road trip. There is the very real possibility of dropping every game. If they can hang with the big dogs at all i'll be content.

[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by Psytic

Im curious to see how they handle the road trip. There is the very real possibility of dropping every game. If they can hang with the big dogs at all i'll be content.

I'm just hoping we see the same kind of effort we've seen so far.

[Canada 02]

It will be good to gauge the young centers against some of the best centers on this road trip.

The teams they've beaten have good, not great centers. How will they deal with Getzlaf/Koivu, Couture/Pavelski/Thornton, Kopitar/Richards/Carter, Seguin/Peverley

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I'm going to the Sharks game this week. I'll let you know how I feel about this team in a drunken rant after that game.