FlamesNation on the Air: Why is this year different from two years ago?

It’s Passover! One of the features of Passover is the youngest at the table during a seder has to ask the four questions. This was pretty much always me, so I’m very familiar with the practice.

To those less familiar, the four questions are all variations of, “Why is this night different from all the other nights?”

So that seemed like a timely way to jump off into my latest appearance on the Fan 960 with Pat. Why is this Flames playoff appearance different from the one two years ago? I touched on the subject earlier, but on the air, we went a little more in depth, with some more specifics.

You can listen to the radio hit here.

We highlighted how much the Flames’ talent has improved over the course of the past two years. You really have to look no further than Mikael Backlund’s linemates. Backlund scored just two points in the playoffs in 2015, when his linemates were a rookie Sam Bennett (later replaced with Lance Bouma) and Joe Colborne. Now? He has Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik – a cast surrounding him that’ll almost certainly see increased offensive production.

Not to mention a healthy Mark Giordano and the addition of Dougie Hamilton will bring wonders – though the Flames’ depth is still suspect. And on that note, Calgary should probably focus on playing their top players a little more often…

We also discussed the Honda Center curse and how much it really means (not that much; the Flames last won there in 2006, aka when Tkachuk was eight years old), how the lineup looks in its current makeup, and whether or not Curtis Lazar should see some ice during the postseason.

Enjoy, and hopefully on next week’s FlamesNation spot on the Fan 960 we’ll have lots of good things to talk about!

All of our previous hits are linked here.