It wasn't supposed to be this way.
This season was supposed to be one of modest expectations. One where the Flames, having bottomed out in the race for McDavid, began to take a few shaky steps back up the Western Conference ladder. A year where the org would still be considered sellers at the deadline, where the management would still be sorting through hopefuls and fringe NHLers.
Instead, the cardiac kids defied prognosticators and analytics alike to emerge as the NHL's unlikeliest Cinderella story last year, held up by the magic of late period comebacks and OT heroics.