The first sign of trouble came early.
Immediately, actually.
“Our start created the doubt. Last year, our start created the push,” recalled Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley, whose squad proved the pundits wrong again this season, not such a good thing when you’re being picked as a playoff team.
“This year, well, we were supposed to overachieve again and suddenly, whether it’s over-expecting or just having a bad start, that loss against Vancouver in the home-opener was a shock. It was almost like a boxer who is supposed to win and five seconds into the first round, he takes a good one on the jaw.