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 ...