Now that the playoffs have started and the Flames, who were predicted to be a top team at the start of the season, missed making the playoffs in the final week of the season.
That means they end up in their traditional “absolutely middle of the pack” position they usually get in years they suck, it’s time to review the ways this season was one of the most painful I’ve watched.
I think the early season predictions would’ve held and they would’ve at least been in the playoffs if they had…
* not lost their two best players, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk in the off-season, Gaudreau for no return
* not rolled four lines, basically no matter the situation
* not done constant line juggling without allowing players to build chemistry
* played OT to win instead of not lose (eg. playing two forwards and a d-man instead of a forward and two d-men like the Flames often did)
* given young prospects a chance instead of sticking with grinder vets who had won a Cup maybe once a decade ago
* for example, Matthew Philips was leading the AHL in goal scoring, Dustin Wolf was the leading AHL goaltender but Philips got a brief look and Wolf didn’t play until they were eliminated (and of course he won.).
* worse, Phillips is a free agent and will likely end up with another team. (The Flames have a history of letting undersized players go on to success elsewhere – Martin St. Louis, Marc Savard and arguably even Johnny Gaudreau though time will tell if he has more success in Columbus.)
* speaking of goaltending, it pains me but they should’ve done what the Oil did and ride the hot young goalie instead of the higher paid, more experienced one. Vladar ended up with a much better overall record than Markstrom but Sutter kept going back to Markstrom for some inexplicable reason.
* league average goaltending instead of 26th ranked GAA
* league average shooting percentage, not 8.8%
* the most games decided by one goal in the NHL (48)
* record-setting 30 one-goal losses
* record-setting 17 OT/shootout losses
* Going back to an earlier point, I can’t imagine how an undersized but top AHL goal scorer like Phillips couldn’t have helped the Flames in 3-on-3 overtime.
* NHL all-time record-setting number of losses when outshooting opponent by 10+ (25)
* tied for third in terms of most posts hit in the NHL
* fewest third period comebacks in the NHL
* not using Milan Lucic on the power play…ever
* not letting Nick Ritchie (!) take your final shootout attempt of the season with basically the team’s slim playoff hopes on the line
* actually named a captain
…and worst of all, not lost to their arch rival Oilers in last year’s playoffs which seems to have psychologically damaged the entire team as much as I hate to admit it.
They’ve had ups and downs over the years like all teams. But like I said earlier, this was probably the single most painful season I’ve seen as a Flames fan.
I mean, it could always be worse. We could be the Oilers! 😉
Flames fans are beating themselves up over this season finishing with 93 points. That point total, 93 points, would represent the fourth best season for the Edmonton Oilers since 2006. They sure love patting themselves on the back when they have been one of the worst team in the NHL for 15 years.
And it could get better next year too!
We got the first delivery of 
