Welcome to the ninth week of our Western Conference playoff race coverage. Amazingly, it looks like the Calgary Flames may actually make the playoffs as they’ve gone on a crazy run over the past month. At the same time as Calgary got hot, many of the teams around them got ice cold. Timing truly is everything.
Let’s check out the race as we begin the weekend!

WHERE THEY STAND

Team
GP
W
Pts
Pct
ROW
Div
Chances
% Change
Wild
65
42
90
.692
39
CEN
100%
none
Blackhawks
66
42
89
.674
39
CEN
100%
none
Sharks
66
40
87
.659
38
PAC
100%
none
Ducks
67
35
80
.597
32
PAC
98.2%
up 3.3%
Oilers
66
35
78
.591
31
PAC
99.1%
down 0.3%
Flames
67
37
78
.582
34
PAC
94.4%
up 13.4%
Predators
67
32
75
.560
30
CEN
81.1%
down 8.7%
Blues
65
33
71
.546
32
CEN
82.8%
up 7.1%
Kings
66
32
70
.530
30
PAC
42.4%
down 5.8%
Jets
68
30
66
.485
28
CEN
1.6%
down 2.1%
Canucks
67
28
65
.485
24
PAC
0.2%
none
Stars
67
27
64
.478
27
CEN
0.4%
up 0.1%
Coyotes
66
23
54
.409
18
PAC
0.0%
none
Avalanche
66
19
41
.311
19
CEN
OUT
none
(Chances courtesy Sports Club Stats.)
The Flames head into the weekend tied for fifth in points and sixth outright in points percentage.
There are fundamentally three races going on concurrently:
  • Anaheim, Edmonton and Calgary are duking it out for the second and third Pacific Division spots.
  • Nashville and St. Louis are fighting for the last Central Division spot.
  • Calgary, Nashville, St. Louis and Los Angeles are fighting for the two wildcard spots.
Los Angeles still looks like the odd team out. Everyone around them just keeps winning and they’re having a tough time gaining any ground.
If the playoffs began today, the Flames would be playing San Jose based on all the current tiebreakers.

THIS PAST WEEK

The Flames swept the three games they’ve played over the past week, beating Detroit, the Islanders and Montreal.

THIS COMING WEEK

The Flames play three times before next Friday. They visit Winnipeg on Saturday, then are back home to play Pittsburgh on Monday and Boston on Wednesday.
Focusing in on Anaheim, Edmonton and Los Angeles – in terms of the divisional race and Calgary’s ability to clinch eventually:
  • Anaheim (two points up, games are even): they play St. Louis, Washington and St. Louis again.
  • Edmonton (even in points, one game in hand): they play Pittsburgh, Montreal, Dallas and Boston.
  • Los Angeles (eight points back, one game in hand): they play Washington, St. Louis, Arizona and Buffalo.