Coyotes 5, Flames 2 post-game embers: That’s that

Can’t compete with playoff-bound teams. Can’t sweep lottery teams. Math is the only thing keeping them alive at this point, and it won’t for much longer.

The Flames now have a goal differential of -18. Against the-then worst team in the NHL – the Coyotes’ win jumped them all the way up to tied for third worst – they managed to briefly grab hold of a one-goal lead, cough it up two minutes later, play out a third period like they were destined to go to overtime so they would at least get a point– oh wait the Coyotes, who have absolutely nothing to play for and haven’t really since like November were still trying and got a goal with just under four minutes to go. Follow that up with two empty-netters and yeah, you’ve got a -18 goal differential.

The Flames have struggled to hold on to positive goal differentials all season. Every single time they got up there they’d get blown out and it would fall right back down.

They have gotten mostly good goaltending throughout the year and have one of the league’s top point getters playing big minutes every night. They have a -18 goal differential to show for it.

Playoff-bound teams have positive goal differentials. That’s it. Full stop. The Flames have the fourth worst goal differential in the West, and they’ve earned it.

Sean Monahan: eight shots. Mikael Backlund: six shots. Sam Bennett: six shots. Dougie Hamilton: six shots. Johnny Gaudreau: five shots. The rest of the team: 13 shots. (Notable that Micheal Ferland, after being replaced on the first line, had zero shots on net?)

Twenty-fourth game of the season in which the Flames have had at least three powerplay opportunities and failed to score a single goal.

Here’s something hilarious: via Natural Stat Trick, the Flames lead the NHL in high danger corsi events for per 60, at 13.24. Toronto is second, at 13.04. The Flames are fifth in scoring chances for, at 31.72. The Leafs are first, at 33.09. The Leafs are fifth in goals per game, at 3.23. The Flames are 24th, at 2.69.

Screw it, I got nothing.

No, seriously, I’ve got nothing. They’re not making the playoffs. There’s no reason to look forward to the draft with so few picks available. This is a team that probably deserves better but ever since they managed to string seven wins in a row together they’ve collapsed at every single sign of adversity and I don’t care. I just don’t care. I have not cared since the Olympics started. I am literally only still bothering with watching them because of this blog. I have tried finding ways to write about them but they have exhausted them, it’s the same old every single game now, the players look like they know they’re done, there’s no useful information to be gathered from any of the remaining games. They’re just things that are going to happen.

They can reach a maximum of 96 points, if they somehow manage to win every single game from here on out. The way other teams are trending, that won’t be enough for a wild card spot.

So I guess I pose this question: do you continue watching? If yes, is it because you genuinely want to, or is it out of some misplaced sense of obligation and/or obsessive nature that says you have to see this trainwreck of a season through to the end?

I guess there’s hope Rasmus Andersson plays out the season and plays so well the team is forced to have him on the starting roster next year. He played 13:32 last night, the least out of all defencemen, which isn’t exactly surprising. He played 2:01 on the powerplay, which actually was kind of exciting to see him get that chance. He had a 36.00% 5v5 CF, which is uhh less exciting, albeit with 25.00% offensive zone starts and primarily against 35 point scorer Christian Dvorak, and it was also only one game, so probably not entirely his fault.