The 2017 Playoff Chase: running in place
By Ryan Pike
7 years agoWelcome to the second exciting week of our Western Conference playoff race coverage. The Calgary Flames are still very much in the playoff mix, but they didn’t do very much to help themselves over the past week.
Let’s take a dive into the numbers, gang.
WHERE THEY STAND
| Team | GP | W | Pts | Pct | ROW | Div | Chances | % Change |
| Wild | 44 | 29 | 63 | .716 | 28 | CEN | 100% | none |
| Blackhawks | 47 | 28 | 61 | .649 | 26 | CEN | 99.5% | down 0.2 |
| Ducks | 47 | 25 | 59 | .628 | 23 | PAC | 98.5% | up 3.7 |
| Sharks | 46 | 28 | 58 | .630 | 26 | PAC | 99.6% | up 0.8 |
| Oilers | 47 | 25 | 57 | .606 | 22 | PAC | 96.7% | up 6.5 |
| Blues | 46 | 23 | 51 | .554 | 22 | CEN | 69.6% | up 6.1 |
| Flames | 48 | 24 | 51 | .531 | 22 | PAC | 50.1% | down 7.7 |
| Predators | 45 | 21 | 49 | .544 | 20 | CEN | 72.0% | up 7.8 |
| Kings | 45 | 22 | 49 | .533 | 21 | PAC | 72.7% | down 7.1 |
| Canucks | 46 | 21 | 48 | .522 | 17 | PAC | 18.4% | up 4.8 |
| Jets | 48 | 21 | 46 | .479 | 19 | CEN | 12.6% | down 5.6 |
| Stars | 47 | 19 | 46 | .489 | 19 | CEN | 10.3% | down 9.1 |
| Coyotes | 45 | 13 | 32 | .356 | 9 | PAC | 0.0% | none |
| Avalanche | 42 | 13 | 27 | .321 | 13 | PAC | 0.0% | none |
The Flames begin the weekend ninth in the Western Conference in points percentage and seventh in terms of points earned. They’ve played more games than anybody else in the conference, so take their points total with a shaker full of salt. The scary thing right now is that everybody has games in hand. If they win them, Calgary falls right on out of a playoff spot without actually doing anything themselves.
If the playoffs began today, the Flames would be starting against Anaheim (if you judge by point totals) or golfing (if you judge by points percentage).
THIS PAST WEEK
Since last Friday, the Flames have played four games: they lost to New Jersey, they lost to Edmonton in a shootout, they beat Florida and they lost to Nashville. That’s a 1-2-1 record and three points, for what it’s worth. They played two good games (Edmonton and Florida) and looked pretty bad in their other two.
THIS COMING WEEK
The Flames play four games this week: they face Edmonton on Saturday night at home, then hit the road for games with Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa before the All-Star Break. They probably need two wins, maybe three, to keep pace with everyone around them – and to guard against the other clubs winning their games in hand and leap-frogging them.
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