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“We have a long way to go,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said during his final turn of the season.

Yes, but think of the how far they’ve come.

And after the initial jolt of shock has subsided, that initial, powerful stage of hurt and disbelief lessened, after the bruises have healed and the dust settled, they’ll reflect and they’ll understand.

A fairy-tale it was.

Together, a group of invested veterans and presumptuous kids marshalled by a coaching reclamation project from the Swiss league performed something bordering on miraculous: They resuscitated an ailing, down-at-heel, directionally challenged franchise.

Vital signs: stable.

Sean Monahan’s continuing evolution as a marquee two-way pivot. The playoff introductions of junkyard dog Sam Bennett and nuclear-impact Michael Ferland. The symmetry displayed by Monahan, Hudler and Gaudreau in transforming themselves into an authentic No. 1 NHL line. The new gent at the tiller, Brad Treliving, savvy enough not to strut in and feel compelled to leave his fingerprints everywhere as a new general manager, gradually coming to the realization that what he had was actually working and could in fact be something bordering on special. A pretty decent, often decisive goaltending partnership that’s set to be joined by Frozen Four-winning skyscraper Jon Gillies.

So much went so right, proved to be so unexpected, so dumbfounding, so utterly compelling that you were afraid to turn away in case you blinked and missed something.