The Calgary Flames aren’t winning enough season series
By Ryan Pike
1 year agoOn Saturday night, the Calgary Flames finished off their three-game season series against the Colorado Avalanche. It didn’t go well, with the Flames losing by a 4-1 score. The loss decided their season series, giving the Avalanche a 2-1-0 series win.
The loss continues a trend throughout the season: the Flames aren’t find a way to win enough season series.
The thought process is essentially this: to make the playoffs, a team needs to win more than half of their season series. Sure, winning series within the Western Conference would be better – because getting the majority of these head-to-head points is important in playoff races – but points are points wherever you can get ’em.
So far this season, the Flames have completed 17 season series.
Both teams got the same amount of points (5):
- Buffalo: 1-1-0
- NY Rangers: 1-0-1 (the win was in overtime)
- Philadelphia: 1-1-0
- Tampa Bay: 1-1-0
- Washington: 1-1-0
The Flames earned more points than their opponents (4):
- Florida: 2-0-0
- NY Islanders: 1-0-1
- Pittsburgh: 1-0-1
- Seattle: 2-1-0
The Flames earned fewer points than their opponents (8):
- Carolina: 1-1-0 (the win was in overtime)
- Columbus: 1-1-0 (the win was in overtime)
- Colorado: 1-2-0
- Detroit: 0-2-0
- Edmonton: 1-2-0
- Montreal: 0-1-1
- New Jersey: 0-1-1
- St. Louis: 1-1-1
So, the Flames have outright won just four of 17 season series. That’s not great.
The Flames have games left in 14 of their season series. How many are possible to win? Well, they’ve already lost their series to Nashville (0-2-0 with one game left). They’re trying to get draws in their series with Boston and Chicago.
That leaves 11 series that they can still win: Anaheim, Arizona, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Ottawa, San Jose, Toronto, Vancouver, Vegas and Winnipeg. The Flames have won both games with Arizona, so with a game left they’ve already won the series regardless of how the finale goes. Every other series is still up in the air.
Five of the season series that they can still win are within the Pacific Division. It goes without saying, but if they want to have any chance of making the playoffs, they need to almost run the table in their remaining divisional games – three with Anaheim, two with Los Angeles, two with San Jose, two with Vancouver and two with Vegas.
Is the Flames’ season done? Nope. With 22 games remaining, they still have a path to the playoffs. But it’s narrow, and challenging. And it really relies on them figuring out ways to win as many of their remaining season series as they can.
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