Oh wait… Totally do need goals… Who comes up with this stuff???
Or… If you’re hoping for the best chance at a #1 pick, maybe the goals are just an inconvenient obstacle in accomplishing that task. After all, you don’t get the most tickets in the tumbler unless you end the season with the worst record.
Which in theory is a fine way to rationalize the struggles the Flames are going through, the issue however, is that you can’t let the seed of a losing culture into the room. That leads to acceptance and apathy and the Calgary Flames can’t afford to have their team be OK with losing despite the fan’s vision of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow being a first overall pick.
And that’s one of the most important struggles the club is having right now: Trying to remain competitive and instill the kind of character and team identity they’re aspiring to, well understanding that they don’t have the horses to realistically compete this season.
Although it could be argued that even that is an over-simplification. After all, the Flames haven’t been 100% healthy at any point this season and when they were close, they proved to be a fairly competitive club on a nightly basis. Was it just a matter of teams underestimating the perceived “hapless” Flames, or was a true indication of what this team could do if it believed in itself and made a conscious effort to do all of the little thing that could make a team successful?
It’s an uncomfortable precipice the Flames sit on at this point. Everyone knows that they’re not looking to do anything to create a quick fix for the offence, but they also can’t allow the team’s psyche to become completely destroyed by the lack of success and risk losing all of the great strides they’ve made in the clubs identity and attitude for the first three months of the season.
For the most part, it’s up to the coaches. This is where they need to understand where they are and not be willing to accept it, but also not try to champion an impossible message that will cause the players to tune them out. It’s a dicey situation that I think is a much greater challenge to the coaches than people realize. After all, just because the fans might be willing to accept some bad outings for the sake of improvement in the future, that’s not an option for people in the organization. These people are fighting for their jobs on a day-to-day basis and they’re conditioned to do their best to win every time they step out on the ice. Even when all evidence may point against it, you simply can’t allow yourself to think that it’s acceptable to start losing, that’s when the aforementioned issues of complacency and acceptance can sneak in and ruin the culture of an organization for years.
The Flames are having monumental struggles trying to produce offense right now. Some fans are happy with the team looking to “catch” the Oilers for last place in the West. I have no issues with fans who are ok with getting a high pick, just because you see the benefit in getting a high selection and executing a proper rebuild doesn’t make you a bad fan in my books, I’d call you more pragmatic than anything else.
The team, however, can’t ever be allowed to see things that way. I think Bob Hartley and his staff of done a very good job of not allowing their players to fall into complacency and are doing their best to keep the attitudes positive and the work-ethic high. It was much easier to do at the beginning of the season when the Flames jumped out to a surprising successful start, now the job is getting to its most difficult point as the losses and struggles pile up and the message and idea of future success seems so far away. Not to mention the injuries the team is dealing with… And it was just announced that Mike Cammalleri has been diagnosed with a concussion…
When it rains, it pours…
There is at least one positive for Flames fans, however, as bad as the Flames struggles have been, they’re still a point ahead of the Oilers with three games in hand… Although, if you’re after the #1 pick, that may not be great news…
Have a great day!
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