This was supposed to be the year the Calgary Flames began to advance their way up the Western Conference standings. With a young, maturing core, a cadre of effective veterans, and freshly acquired players like Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith to fill critical holes, Calgary was poised to become a contender heading into 2017-18.



Instead, the club crashed and burned spectacularly down the stretch. The goaltending faltered, the power play fell apart, and the offence died off completely. The team's failure is so utter that it seems to demand extreme corrective measures in the offseason.



In the face of such stark disappointment, the immediate reaction is to enact sweeping change and punitive correction. But, in many ways, this is the same team that made the playoffs in 2016-17 and convinced both pundits and Flames executives that they would take a step forward this year.



The key to the Flames offseason, then, will be to balance criticism and the will to change with...