Friends, we often hear from folks like our pal Elliotte Friedman from Sportsnet that American Thanksgiving is the date where the standings can really be taken seriously. The first month of the season, October, is often super noisy and so the results can’t be fully trusted. But by November, teams have shaken off their early season rust and are closer to what you can expect them to be.

Well, as we approach American Thanksgiving on Thursday, the Calgary Flames aren’t just in a playoff spot, they’re flirting with the top spot in the Pacific Division. In a season where many expected them to be closer to the league’s basement than the rarefied air of the playoffs.

Let’s get into our feelings about this.

Are the Flames a team with his offensive skill throughout their roster? No. Are the Flames a team with a bunch of random dudes filling out their roster? Also no. The Flames have a roster with a good amount of balance throughout – there’s not a ton of drop-off between their first and fourth forward lines, for instance – and while they don’t have an offensive weapon like a Johnny Gaudreau or Matthew Tkachuk that can tilt the balance of a close game in an instant, I think the absence of such an offensive deterrent has fed into the team really having to play a full team game with connectivity, pace and forechecking in order to be successful.

Through 21 games, this unflinching adherence to their system has worked in combination with some really nice goaltending performances from Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar. But it’s a hard style of game to maintain, and the next 15-20 games will probably tell the tale of whether the Flames hang around in the playoff mix… or they get worn down by their system a bit and slide back into the mushy middle a bit.

But considering how early in the rebuilding process the Flames are, the players, management and coaches deserve credit: this is the most cohesive team identity and playing style they’ve had in a long, long time. If you take this team and plunk in a bit more young skill, you don’t have to squint too hard to imagine a pretty good team emerging before too long.

Work continues on the Scotia Place site north of the Saddledome. They’re continuing excavation and shoring work. Last word was that we can expect the arena plans themselves to be going before the Calgary Planning Commission for final approvals in the very near future. (At the time I was writing this, the agenda for the Nov. 28 commission meeting wasn’t yet available.)

Based on everything I’ve heard from Craig Conroy and his management team, they’re taking the long view on things. They don’t want to make any moves this year that will hurt their ability to be a scary-good team in two or three years. In short: I suspect they could make moves to improve the hockey club, but they won’t be trying to make short-term moves. I wouldn’t expect them to be “buyers” in the traditional trade deadline rental addition sense.

(We got some great questions on Rasmus Andersson’s next contract and possible centres the Flames should target in trades, but we’re spinning those off into more detailed breakdowns. Stay tuned!)