Difference between Flames and Nashville is they have a really good coach and we have Gulutzan. Last year in the playoffs Gully still rolls all the lines pretty much the same as the regular season, meaning the 4th line gets way too much ice-time and the bottom pairing (which last year was much much worse than last year) was getting steam rolled all 4 games.
Contrast that to Laviolette who barely played his bottom pairing. His bench management alone is so much better, when things got tough he was only rolling 4 guys with the 3rd pairing getting a shift every 7 or 8 minutes. Nashville also shows up to most games, where the Flames seemingly take games off. Nashville shuts teams down, Flames have done it sparingly.
Gio is better than Josi, Josi is the most overrated player in this league based on the stuff I see on HF. He's good, but he is no where near as good as people think. Look at the system Nashville d-men play and the system our d-men play; they are all pretty much the exact same type of players, yet their D gets to actually join the rush and engage in offence while ours our completely neutered by the "system". It's a joke. Our teams are fairly comparable and play completely different, it's stupid how our coaching staff, in 2 years, has barely adapted the system to fit our roster. We still get Gaudreau chipping and chasing the puck for God sake, one of the best possession guys in the league; never mind the fact he's 5'9" 160 lbs.