'KEEP KNOCKING ON THE DOOR'

In the thick of the heartbreak, Darryl Sutter walked in the room Thursday and had a message for his players:
"'Keep your chin up and your chests out and walk out proud,'" the coach beamed.
"Did a hell of a lot more than anybody said they'd do."

Truth.
From missing the playoffs last year, to being the prognosticators' punching bag when training camp opened in the fall, the 2021-22 season will be remembered for a lot of things.
There were the personal milestones, of course. Eleven players had career seasons offensively, including the top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk, who terrorized the circuit with 40 goals apiece, 301 points between them, and a combined +182 rating.
There were the franchise marks, too - the 50 wins, 111 points, and a second division title in four seasons to make this the second-best regular season in Flames history.
Sure, they - like 31 other teams, when all is packed up in June - fell short of the ultimate goal.
But if Job 1 was "to make the playoffs" after a disappointing campaign a year prior, it's hard not to lean on the positives.
They proved a lot of people wrong this year.
And took a ton of steps forward.
"Sometimes you've got to learn the hard way and I think that's part of what this was," said Blake Coleman, who's won the past two Cups as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. "It's not a lack of character. We had great guys in the room, good leadership, good young guys. We had a good mix. We had toughness, we had skill.
"We just got outplayed."

The Bolts had a similar experience when their 'window' opened some four or five years ago. Coleman wasn't a part of that group yet, but they won a franchise record 62 games and were the Presidents' Trophy winners by a country mile.
And they got swept. In the first round.
By a Columbus team that finished the regular season 29 points in the rearview.
Here, it's a bit different. The Flames ultimately bowed out in the second round, and to an Oilers team that had 49 wins in the regular season. The outcome might be the same, but maybe that little bit of pain will serve this core well in the long run.
"It came up a ton. Even when I came in at the deadline it was still heavily talked about," Coleman said of how that disappointing, first-round exit to the Blue Jackets fuelled them in subsequent years. "I remember Coop (Lighting coach Jon Cooper) would wear a Virginia Cavaliers hat. I don't know if you remember, but they were the ones in the NCAA basketball tournament. They got bounced and came back and won it the next year.
"It was constantly being reminded, but I think it made that a much better team. Their top guys and their really skilled players bought in. When Kuch (Nikita Kucherov) is yelling dump the puck on the bench, you listen. That's what you need; you need guys that are willing to pay the price.
"I think the only reason they were at that level was because of their failures.
"Sometimes, that's what it takes."
For now, that won't lessen the sting. The Flames, obviously, had high hopes after proving themselves over the course of the regular season, and then turning that success into immediate, postseason experience with their first-round, Game 7 win over Dallas.
But - for whatever reason - they couldn't sustain it in Round 2.
"There's an empty feeing today because I think there was more there," said General Manager Brad Treliving. "I look at that series and the team that played the best won the series. I think you have to acknowledge that. What's empty for me is I don't think we put our game on the ice. There are times in this business when you get beat and you tip your hat to the better foe.
"(But) we established an identity and a style of play that I don't think we - for a number of reasons, and some we'll have to find out - we never got to it in the second round, and you have to acknowledge the opponent and we'll figure out why, internally, that didn't happen.
"But that leaves a really empty feeling because there was more there that we could have given."
The "identity" Treliving speaks of is one of puck possession. They were a volume team that controlled the pace of play, no matter who the opponent was. They had a stifling, energetic, punishing forecheck that made life miserable on opposing defenders. They generated chances at a higher rate than anyone in the West, and gave up little in return.
In the Battle of Alberta, a lot of that went awry. And most critically, they surrendered chances more frequently, and from the most dangerous areas on the ice.
That's playoff hockey for you.
It's a mode unlike anything the regular season has to offer.

"Anytime you lose, you're always going to be questioned," Treliving said. "That's the nature of the beast. … In my chair, you hear it all the time, but it is very much process-driven and I thought our process was right.
"To me, this team has taken some big steps.
"Nobody wants to hear it. But you've got to keep knocking on the door, you've got to keep knocking on the door, you've got to keep knocking on the door.
"You look at a team last night in Colorado. They got out of the second round for the first time in 20 years. That group of players, they shouldn't be taking the burden of 20 years - but it's probably five or six years for that team. You keep knocking on the door. Tampa Bay, right? Tampa Bay. Before they won, there was some pain before you win.
"This group now goes into next year with the experience of winning a round, winning a Game 7; going into an overtime of a Game 7. Those are all things you can't get the experience [without living it]. It's like talking to a young player about playing against an NHL player. You have to live it. Now, they've got that in their toolbox."
So, how does one parse the regular season success and evaluate it in lock-step with a disappointing playoff exit?
It's easy to let frustration creep in, or let anger and impulse take over when directing the autopsy. But the measured approach is manager's work - and the 'nuclear' option is anything but.
Changes, on some level, are inevitable. But, to a man, the players want the chance to do it again with this group.
They believe in the direction the team is going.
They believe in the steps they took.
They believe in their coach and the foundation that has been laid.
And, most importantly, they believe in each other.
"It's rare to finish first in your division, have a great team that really has a shot at winning," Coleman said. "I don't think we took anything for granted. I think guys understood that we had a special team.

"Things could have gone differently, obviously, and we wish that we were still playing, but I think we kept our focus the right way and we understood that you don't want to waste opportunities like this.
"You just can't win them all."