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The 2017 Playoff Chase: down to the nitty gritty
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Photo credit: Candice Ward / USA Today Sports
Ryan Pike
Mar 31, 2017, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 31, 2017, 02:19 EDT
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Welcome to the 12th week of our Western Conference playoff race coverage. We’re at the point now where we can declare the Los Angeles Kings fundamentally dead – “You have selected regicide!…“ – but there’s still probably going to be a bit of movement in the standings, primarily in the Pacific Division, before everything’s over.
Let’s check out the race as we begin the weekend!

WHERE THEY STAND

Team
GP
W
Pts
Pct
ROW
Div
Chances
% Change
Blackhawks
77
49
105
.682
45
CEN
IN
none
Wild
77
45
98
.636
42
CEN
IN
none
Ducks
77
42
96
.623
39
PAC
IN
up 0.1%
Oilers
77
43
95
.617
39
PAC
IN
none
Sharks
77
43
93
.604
41
PAC
IN
up 1.0%
Blues
76
42
90
.592
41
CEN
100%
up 0.2%
Flames
77
43
90
.584
39
PAC
99.9%
up 1.7%
Predators
77
39
89
.578
37
CEN
99.8%
up 1.2%
Kings
76
36
79
.520
34
PAC
0.4%
down 3.0%
Jets
78
36
79
.506
33
CEN
OUT
down 0.1%
Stars
77
31
73
.474
31
CEN
OUT
none
Canucks
76
30
69
.454
26
PAC
OUT
none
Coyotes
77
27
63
.409
21
PAC
OUT
none
Avalanche
76
20
43
.283
20
CEN
OUT
none
(Chances courtesy Sports Club Stats.)
Here’s how things look, with the eight playoff teams basically decided:
The Central: Chicago is a virtual lock to win the division. Minnesota’s the runaway leader for second. St. Louis’ crazy schedule (with very easy opponents) has them with the inside track for third.
The Pacific: With San Jose’s slide, Anaheim and Edmonton are neck and neck for the division lead. It’s between San Jose and whoever doesn’t win the division for the other two spots (in whichever order).
The Wildcards: The Flames have the inside track for the first wildcard, the Predators look to be a virtual lock for the other spot.
In other words, the probable first round looks like:
  • Chicago vs. Nashville
  • Minnesota vs. St. Louis
  • Anaheim/Edmonton vs. Calgary
  • San Jose vs. Anaheim/Edmonton
C’mon, Battle of Alberta! (And yes, it does feel weird rooting for the Oilers to win the division for the sake of a fun first round.)

THIS PAST WEEK

The Flames won two of their three games this past week: they beat St. Louis and Colorado, but lost to Los Angeles.

THIS COMING WEEK

The Flames play four times before next Friday. They host San Jose tonight and Anaheim on Sunday, then head to Anaheim on Tuesday and Los Angeles on Thursday.
Focusing in on the teams in Calgary’s general vicinity:
  • Anaheim (six points up): they play Edmonton, Calgary (twice) and Chicago.
  • Edmonton (five points up): they play Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
  • San Jose (three points up): they play Calgary, Vancouver (twice) and Edmonton.
  • St. Louis (tied, one game in hand): they play Colorado, Nashville, Winnipeg and Florida.
  • Nashville (one point back): they play Minnesota, St. Louis, the NY Islanders and Dallas.

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