Captain Mark Giordano Sounds Off About Disappointing Season

After making it into the post-season and disposing of the rival Vancouver Canucks last year, Calgary Flames fans were hopeful for a longer Stanley Cup run this year. But untimely injuries mixed with some questionable coaching and inconsistent goaltending led to the Flames falling short of the playoffs...by a Red Mile.

"We had our ups, we had our downs. At the end of the day, it wasn't enough." - Mark Giordanohttps://t.co/wWP8yQ477N

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) April 13, 2016

Nobody swallowed that pill harder than Captain Mark Giordano on garbage bag day at the Saddledome, and Aaron Vickers story on the Flames website summed up Gio's feelings.

"It's still a tough day and it'll be tougher in the next few days when you start watching playoff games. Like I said, if there's one good thing that will come out of this, and maybe for the young guys who made it in their first year last year, you take it for granted a little bit and think it's easy to get in and it's not. It's really tough to get in."

-Mark Giordano

The Flames Captain had a torn bicep and was forced to watch last year's 1st round win over the Canucks, and then watched the Flames lose in the 2nd round to the Anaheim Ducks.

"Last year not being able to play was rough for me. It was great to see the organization get back in it last year and we have to get back there."

-Mark Giordano

Vickers report goes on to mention the "big additions" and "plenty of momentum from the previous spring" which perhaps should have fired the club up for a great start this past season. Instead, here we are watching other teams fight for the Stanley Cup while Giordano gives us a breakdown of what went wrong.

"Obviously, everyone knows about the bad start and then just really inconsistent. We had our ups, we had our downs, but at the end of the day it wasn't enough...I think we all came in expecting to make the playoffs and then you get off to that start and it just felt like we were chasing it all year and trying to find a way to get back into the race...You come into the season really optimistic. I thought we made some really good moves in the off-season and I think our start hurt us, obviously falling behind and not being able to get back into the playoff mix."

-Mark Giordano

On the bright side, Gio had a great season personally scoring a career high 21 goals and 56 points, but he would likely be the first to say that personal stats aren't as important as making the playoffs as a team and winning a Stanley Cup.