I usually don't put too much stock into the performance of any NHL team until the 10 game mark. By then you can get a better sense of who they are, who they want to be and what blocks there are preventing them from getting there, if any. That being said ...
Here I am anyway with some thoughts after the Flames have played only eight games. It is roughly 10% of the schedule though so maybe I'm not violating too many karmic rules.

What irks me is the seemingly constant work on "discovering the team identity". This seems to happen nearly every season and by the time the team has decided on who they want to be 20-25 games have passed and they are looking at a 10-15 point difference between themselves and the last playoff spot.

Now I know that this off-season saw some comparatively major changes in tone around the Flames, with the new general manager putting stamps on things and bringing in his type of players. But when is it going to end? With all the public running-out-of-town of anyone with the surname Sutter recently, it can be said that anything less than a playoff spot and a first round victory will spell the end of Brent Sutter's days as head coach.

However, I present to you that Sutter should not only be extended, but should be extended NOW.

The Flames, like many other professional sports organizations, do not do well with constant changes in direction from the senior management. It's VERY obvious with the Flames though:

Omitting their time in Atlanta, from the time they moved to Calgary up to and included the 1989-1990 season the Flames had one general manager, three coaches and really four captains since Lanny MacDonald was a constant. Those are unquestionably the most successful years this franchise has seen. During that time they won the President's Trophy twice for leading the league in points, the Clarence Campbell Bowl twice for winning the Campbell, now Western, Conference, and one Stanley Cup. They were at or near the top of their division repeatedly and along with the Gretzky era Edmonton Oilers made any road trip through Alberta a hellish time for most NHL teams.

Contrast that with the era leading up to Darryl Sutter's first pre-season with the Flames, from the 1990-1991 season until the end of the 2002-2003 season. Thirteen seasons, three general managers, nine head coaches, at least eight captains (as the 1990-1991 season the time used rotating capatins). During that time the Flames won ZERO playoff series, missed the playoffs entirely for an infamous seven year stretch and eight times in total, won their division twice and finished second three times. These high regular season finishes made the playoff losses much more painful since the Flames had proven themselves to be much better than their opponents during the regular season.

I submit that this constant churning of senior leadership in the 90's lead the Flames to spending too much time "finding themselves" and not nearly enough time executing their gameplan. They lacked confidence in their teammates, coaches and direction and it showed. In the 80's I can't count the number of times I watched Doug Risebrough win a faceoff directly back to Lanny MacDonald, even when Riser could not possibly have seen where Lanny was. They just knew, they gelled ... and Lanny's powerful one-timer was behind the goaltender before some of the players had even reacted to the puck being dropped. This is the confidence that the Flames teams of the 90's and early 2000's was missing.

Then Darryl Sutter showed up and announced he was going to restore this sense of identity, swagger and confidence. For the end of the 2002-2003 season he made some progress, but the team he inherited was not good enough and he didn't have enough time to turn them completely around. The 2003-2004 season showed great promise, despite the general manager change which arguably doesn't count since Darryl replaced Craig Button so there was less change at the top, less of a change of direction and more of a reinforcement of direction. 2005-2006 went very well as the Flames won their division and then bowed out in the first round, a blight that might have been overlooked had they finished better in subsequent years.

But that was not to be, as Darryl Sutter continued the churning of management by leaving the head coaching role after only two and a half seasons. In his place he promoted Jim Playfair who proceeded to lead the Flames to a respectable finish in 2006-2007 that was capped with another first round playoff loss. Sutter then really churned up the leadership roles by demoting Playfair to associate and hiring Mike Keenan as head coach. When the 2007-2008 season went no better than the previous one Sutter removed Playfair completely and went with just Keenan. 2008-2009 ended even worse with the Flames barely making the playoffs before being predictably crushed in the first round.

But the management changes were not finished. 2009-2010 saw another head coach, and Brent Sutter joined the circus. With that season finishing with not even making the playoffs the Flames went into 2010-2011 with a new assistant general manager, the first time Darryl Sutter had hired someone to help him. The Flames proceeded to react to this obvious sign of distrust in the man at the top by flirting with being dead last in the NHL through the first three months of the season before even more change came about by Darryl Sutter quitting as general manager and Jay Feaster taking over.

Now 2011-2012 is underway and the Flames are just under .500 and showing some signs of promise. I think it's very clear that there are two distinct eras of Flames hockey and in the successful era we have a definite trend of solid, stable leadership at the top. In the 20 seasons from 1990-1991 until the recently completed 2010-2011 the Flames have had:
Five General Managers
Twelve Head Coaches
At least nine Captains
Ten seasons of missing the playoffs entirely (50%!)
Exactly 3 playoff round victories, versus fourteen series contested (21% and all of those wins in ONE SEASON)
40 playoff games won against 91 played (44% ... good grief)

I've not even discussed the dozens of rotating assistant coaches, all of whom had their place in the stability, or lack thereof, of the organization.

So ... I implore you Jay Feaster, Ken King and anyone else from the Flames organization that might come across this: sign Brent Sutter to a 3 or 4 year extension right now. While the team is doing alright but not great. Show the players that he is the coach and that you all mean business. Make sure there is no change of direction until that sad day in the too-near future when Iginla passes the captaincy torch ... hopefully more like MacDonald and less like Nieuwendyk.

Please. We don't need to or expect to win the Stanley Cup every year. But this constant churning of the senior people makes it so much less likely that the Flames can even make a show of it. Its time to take the Nashville and early Minnesota Wild patterns and stick with the management through thick and thin. We don't give up on many players after only one contract so why the Flames seem intent on developing a reputation for being a one contract coaching town is really astounding to me. Enough. Sign Sutter through 2015 at least.