The Answerman returns to ponder the future of the Calgary Flames, a 107-point regular season team that unexpectedly lost in the first playoff round – and what happens next.



Q: Thank you for waiting for an appropriate amount of time to let the dust settle and the emotions to steady before conducting the autopsy. Presumably, your goal here is to sooth the masses in the midst of this bizarro 2019 playoff season – where the top seeds all toppled like dominoes and the only safe bet was to expect the unexpected.



A: That mixture of disappointment, concern, doubt and anger that Flames fans were feeling after their five-game exit at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche was perfectly understandable. After producing the second-most points in franchise history, it was reasonable to think their October-to-April regular-season achievements would also contribute to some playoff mojo. It didn’t. The fact that every other 2019 regular-season division champion met the...