The Calgary Flames will begin their four game eastern road trip on Monday in an unfamiliar position: outside of a playoff spot.
Through 159 days of the 2024-25 season, the Flames have spent 103 of them in a playoff spot. But by virtue of the Vancouver Canucks’ win over Chicago on Saturday evening, they’ve broken the standings tie between themselves and the Flames – and they sit two points up for the final Western Conference playoff spot.
As the Flames hop on a plane and head east on Sunday, here’s a snapshot of the state of the race as the Flames begin yet another pivotal road trip.

The race, at a glance

After points, the tiebreakers in the standings are games played (fewer ranked first), followed by regulation wins, regulation and overtime wins, and then wins. (After that it gets complicated and messy, and relies on head-to-head performance.)
Team
Points
Games
RegW
ROW
Wins
Canucks
73
66
24
29
31
Flames
71
65
24
27
30
Blues
71
67
23
28
32
Utah HC
69
66
21
28
29

The upcoming week

Sunday
Both the Blues and Canucks complete back-to-back sets that they began on Saturday. At 6 p.m. MT, the Blues host the Ducks. (The game was pushed back a couple hours because the Blues had travel delays getting out of Minnesota on Saturday.) At 7 p.m. MT, the Canucks host Utah.
The best scenario for the Flames in Vancouver/Utah is a Utah regulation win.
Monday
On Monday, the Flames begin their road trip in Toronto with a 5:30 p.m. MT start.
Tuesday
All four teams in the Western playoff race play on Tuesday:
  • The Flames visit the New York Rangers at 5 p.m. MT.
  • The Blues visit Nashville at 6 p.m. MT.
  • Utah visits the Oilers at 7 p.m. MT.
  • The Canucks host the Jets at 8 p.m. MT.
Wednesday
No games.
Thursday
As with Tuesday, all four teams are playing:
  • The Flames visit New Jersey at 5 p.m. MT.
  • The Blues host the Canucks at 5:30 p.m. MT.
  • Utah hosts Buffalo at 7 p.m. MT.
The best scenario for the Flames in St. Louis/Vancouver is a St. Louis regulation win.
Friday
No games.
Saturday
Once again, a busy Saturday with all four teams active:
  • The Canucks visit the Rangers at 11 a.m. MT.
  • The Blues host Chicago at 1 p.m. MT.
  • The Flames visit the Islanders at 2 p.m. MT.
  • Utah hosts Tampa Bay at 3 p.m. MT.
It’s a fun scheduling quirk that the Canucks and Flames, battling for a playoff spot, both play in different boroughs of New York a few hours apart on Saturday. (It’s likely that the Flames will hit the ice for warm-up at UBS Arena at roughly the same time Vancouver’s game will be wrapping up.)
Are the Flames in great shape in the playoff race? Not really. Are they out of it entirely? Also not really. They’re very much in the thick of things, and their performances over their next four games will go a long way towards determining their fate.
Sponsored by bet365: