CALGARY — Once upon a time there was a hockey team, solid enough to have made the playoffs the previous season.



Management, ever bold, had not been satisfied.



So, in the summer, the push for improvement continued. An upper-echelon defender was added to a blueline brimming with talent, to a lineup already considered legit.



Then, as pre-season chatter began in earnest, analysis was nearly unanimous. This club – now with one of the best back-ends in the NHL, with a collection of established forwards, with an elite goaltender – figured to be a factor.



Then came the games.



And that outfit – the 2009-10 Calgary Flames – flopped.



Circumstances are bell-ringingly familiar, no? Because the description fits, to a T, the current lot. All lead-up. No nail-down.



When the hype machine turns out to be shooting blanks, well, just look at how history repeats.



Nine years ago, to much fanfare, the...