2013-14 Flames Expectations

[J epworth]

I can see us being one of those teams that surprises at the beginning of the season ala Minnesota Wild 2011, then fall flat on our face around Christmas when teams actually start taking us seriously, with us finishing 6th or 7th in our division.

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I think we will finish 14th in the West. I think Nashville actually has less talent then we do.

Weber and Jones have more talent than our entire d group put together.

I honestly cannot see a single team in the league that is worse on paper than the Flames.

[HitterD]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I think we will finish 14th in the West. I think Nashville actually has less talent then we do.

It bears mentioning that 14th is actually last place in the west this season.

As for the op, I expect a young flames team will do slightly better then expected and finish 11th, showing some good promise along the way and endlessly frustrating the segment of fans expecting and hoping for a top 2 pick next draft

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Weber and Jones have more talent than our entire d group put together.

Remember, 14th in the west is last in the West next season, so even if he thinks Nashville is not talented, he is still predicting us to be behind them.

[GirlySports]

10th in the west. We'll finish ahead of Edmonton.

There will be exciting play many great wins and many horrible blowouts which will lead to brawls.

Beats losing 3-2 every night.

[FlamesAddiction]

I hope the 2013-2014 season is treated as a player development year. That is my only expectation. If that means going 10-62-10, then so be it.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Without mason Raymond confirmed signing a bottom feeder looking to win the lottery. With mason Raymond signing 7 seed sleeper to conferance finals

I know it's a fine line between success and failure in the NHL, but I don't think it's that fine of a line. We're going to be really bad with or without Raymond.

[nik-]

How does the schedule work now? If we have to play heavy against Vancouver, LA and Anaheim now ... it could get pretty ugly.

[robertsfanatic]

outside of wins and losses, as some other posters have mentioned, it is a success if our new young core get a chance to grow and see a ton of ice for 82 games...

as for how they will do, I think this team will surprise a lot of people on this board and league wide by winning more than expected due to our sleeper goalies...10 - 12 in the conference.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by nik-

How does the schedule work now? If we have to play heavy against Vancouver, LA and Anaheim now ... it could get pretty ugly.

In 2013-14, we'll play:

29 games within the Division
21 games within the Conference (non-division opponents)
32 games against Eastern Conference teams

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by nik-

How does the schedule work now? If we have to play heavy against Vancouver, LA and Anaheim now ... it could get pretty ugly.

Yep. The new alignment does not work out well for the Flames. As bad as the Flames have been they are usually somewhat competitive against the Avs and Wild. Now it's Ducks, Kings, Sharks and the California road trips have always been brutal for this team.

[tempz]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I hope the 2013-2014 season is treated as a player development year. That is my only expectation. If that means going 10-62-10, then so be it.

This. We need our prospects to show growth. If that happens as long as we're playing hard I'm ok with our record getting pretty ugly.

[kehatch]

As Feaster said, what position is lower then 30.

[blankall]

I don't expect success, but expect more exciting hockey. So so so so so so so tired of watching the classic formulaic Flames games:

1) Flames try really hard for 10 minutes, get up 1 goal.
2) Flames go down 2 goals.
3) Flames make too little too late effort, punctuated by careless blunder that results in team losing.

I don't expect this squad to win the championship, but I expect them to hit, play hard, and, at the very least, attempt to make skilled plays. I'm at the point, where I am prepared to watch the team lose as long as they play exciting hockey. I also want to see the team adopt a team style offence. No more focus on just one player.

I also expect the young players to learn and improve through the season. I'm more concerned with that than their record.

I do expect Baetschi to be a Calder candidate. For him, I have high expectations

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by nik-

How does the schedule work now? If we have to play heavy against Vancouver, LA and Anaheim now ... it could get pretty ugly.

And SJS, PHX and EDM.

5 games against each team within the division
3 games against each team within the conference but in the other division
2 games against each team in the other conference

I'm sure the Flames will show up for the BOA games but outside of that I think we are going to get beat up pretty bad in this new division...

[VladtheImpaler]

More fights, more hits, less goals, less points, same terrible coaching.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by ben voyonsdonc

In 2013-14, we'll play:

29 games within the Division
21 games within the Conference (non-division opponents)
32 games against Eastern Conference teams

How do they determine who we play only 4 times?

[kyuss275]

For those that are thinking the flames will be a 10th place team, which 4 teams are worse than the flames?

The only teams I see that might be worse play in the east.

[ben voyonsdonc]

With Hartley, he needs to prove that he won't lose the room when they lose the game. It is not easy for the team to keep its heads held high in the middle of a losing streak. Hartley will need to make sure that the players don't allow a losing mentality to creep in.

[calgarybean]

....how looooowww can we go? Break out the limbo bar for Jay and crew.

Just be entertaining...I can handle loss but not neutered, no effort losses.