I'm pretty pessimistic on their chances to even make it this year
Why? The team is not appreciably different from last year's 4th overall team. They lost out to a hot Avs team that could have gone all the way had one of their star players not had a monkey on his foot (WKRP joke).
To miss out, all of Dallas, Vancouver, Colorado, Edmonton, Nashville, LA and Vegas, and one of St Louis, Minnesota, Seattle or Calgary (teams that ranged from 18 to 29 points behind last year) would have to finish above us. Short of Helly being out 4-6 weeks, or Arniel completely failing at his job, I can't see how this team could miss the playoffs. It's just too big a fall-off.
And just to keep it on topic, I don't think the playoff loss is enough to dampen the enthusiasm that last year's regular season created. I expect average attendance to be in the 14-14.5K range.