1/10th of the way through a season ...

[SeeGeeWhy]

Goaltending will probably come back to earth a bit, but special teams should round into shape a bit more, and you think the forwards will start putting things together a little too. All net neutral effects, I think. It comes down to when these factors are timed and how they get compounded by injury.

That's the big factor for me. Who will get injured and for how long. If we stay healthy I think we could approach low 80s, but in reality I think we achieve similar levels to last season which is actually pretty huge given how many new faces are on the team. It's been awesome to watch so far, just like last year. Love the attitude and hope they can keep this pep up for the whole season, should be another exciting year!

[Yanda]

Yup the rebuild is over, and now we can be a floater team for the next decade with no real chance at winning a stanley cup.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Yup the rebuild is over, and now we can be a floater team for the next decade with no real chance at winning a stanley cup.

[Yrebmi]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Didn't they start strongly last year as well before reality brought them back to earth? It's a long season and a bottom 5 finish sounds about right. It's fun for now though, wheeee!

Yup, but finished strongish too. Gio got injured. We are a much better team when our Captain is on the ice.

[Bingo]

some comments ...

loved how many ready epic fail instead of fall!
I agree I needed another choice in there that was downward but not a complete face plant.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Bingo

some comments ...

loved how many ready epic fail instead of fall!
I agree I needed another choice in there that was downward but not a complete face plant.

Can we get an option for "successfully staying the course through the rebuild"?

Is it a fail if the team is really bad and then at the end of the season the record shows the team was bad?

Fail is reserved for a good team who turns out to be bad. Calgary is a bad team that has glimmers of being good. Ending the season bad would be a nice par finish.

[Imported_Aussie]

There are some teams that will finish below the flames, due to them being in tank mode, or just plain garbage:
Buffalo
Carolina
Florida
Edmonton (unless they get pressured into trading assets to make a push, and make good trades. No, wait, nothing can save them)

Then you have teams like Winnipeg, Arizona, Vancouver and Toronto, who will be in around where the flames are, as they are trying to move into that playoff bubble.

So the flames wont end up 30th or 29th, and are unlikely to be 28th or 27th. that 20-26 range is most likely IMO.

Play is being carried by a few players - in particular Ramo and Hiller in net and the Brodie-Giordano pairing on D.
Forward contributions are sketchy, though I am impressed by Colborne. Gaudreau has shown enough glimpses to suggest he will start to drive more offence as he adapts to the NHL. Raymond has been scoring, but I see him tapering off - still a good contributor.
I don't think Hartley has found his best combos up front, so that could be one area of improvement.

Make no mistake, once this team hits a stretch of playing Pacific division teams more often, they will come back to earth, especially against the trio from California.

[AcGold]

Teams that could be worse than us this year.

Edmonton, Phoenix, Minnesota, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Colorado if their goalie problem remains.

6 teams worse than us = playoffs. That's all I care about, shoot for the playoffs, if they miss come back stronger next year. Yeah Vancouver has a history of beating us but we are able to beat teams like Chicago consistently enough.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Minnesota? Yeah, no. Too much optimism. Even Vancouver is a stretch.

The only way we make the playoffs is Colorado and another central team collapsing, as well as Vancouver playing poorly. So many things would have to go right for us.

[Loudog]

It should be "Carried by goaltending, too soon to say."

I agree that Minnesota and Vancouver are a stretch... but heres to hoping.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

Minnesota? Yeah, no. Too much optimism. Even Vancouver is a stretch.

The only way we make the playoffs is Colorado and another central team collapsing, as well as Vancouver playing poorly. So many things would have to go right for us.

I said could. It's not impossible, Vancouver and Colorado are having goaltending issues and don't have a top pairing as good as we do so we atleast have a chance.

[mrkajz44]

8 games is obviously not enough to get a good handle, especially with a 6 game road trip in there. Advanced stats are not fantastic, but I wonder what they would look like if you take out he chicago game?

I could see a slightly below .500 team at the end of the year. Not an earth shattering predicition, but I think that's a reasonable goal.

[dissentowner]

November will reveal much. If we come out of that month and are still over 500 this team might take a run at a playoff birth.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Teams that could be worse than us this year.

Edmonton, Phoenix, Minnesota, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Colorado if their goalie problem remains.

6 teams worse than us = playoffs. That's all I care about, shoot for the playoffs, if they miss come back stronger next year. Yeah Vancouver has a history of beating us but we are able to beat teams like Chicago consistently enough.

Minnesota was pretty good last year, and got better in the off season. What makes you think they'll be worse than Calgary?

[Day Tripper]

I'm guessing the Flames will finish around where they did last year, maybe slightly higher. Unless Hiller keeps playing like peak Kiprusoff, of course.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by codynw

Minnesota was pretty good last year, and got better in the off season. What makes you think they'll be worse than Calgary?

Hope mostly, the other 5 are feasible to be worse, Minnesota the least likely. If everything goes right for us Minnesota will be the sticking point between 8th and 9th.