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The 2017 Playoff Chase: getting bye

By Ryan Pike

Feb 10, 2017, 16:00 ESTUpdated:

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Welcome to the fifth week of our Western Conference playoff race coverage. The Calgary Flames are on a break. Unlike Ross and Rachel on Friends, this is a regularly scheduled break in the hefty NHL schedule that every team gets and isn’t something for us to debate. As a result of the Flames’ bye, expect the standings to change quite a bit over the next seven days,

Let’s check out the race as we begin the weekend!

WHERE THEY STAND

Team	GP	W	Pts	Pct	ROW	Div	Chances	% Change
Wild	53	35	76	.717	33	CEN	100%	none
Blackhawks	55	33	71	.645	31	CEN	99.8%	up 0.7%
Sharks	55	33	72	.636	31	PAC	99.9%	down 0.1%
Ducks	56	29	68	.607	27	PAC	97.4%	down 0.7%
Oilers	55	29	66	.600	25	PAC	98.8%	up 0.1%
Blues	55	28	61	.555	27	CEN	83.8%	up 21.8%
Predators	54	26	60	.556	24	CEN	79.7%	down 6.3%
Kings	55	28	60	.545	27	PAC	83.0%	down 3.7%
Flames	56	28	59	.527	25	PAC	41.9%	up 10.9%
Canucks	54	24	54	.500	20	PAC	5.3%	down 1.7%
Jets	56	25	54	.482	23	CEN	7.6%	down 12.6%
Stars	55	21	52	.473	21	CEN	2.7%	down 8.6%
Coyotes	52	17	41	.394	12	PAC	0.0%	none
Avalanche	51	15	32	.314	15	PAC	0.0%	none

(Chances courtesy Sports Club Stats.)

The Flames head into the weekend ninth in the Western Conference by either commonly-used measure – points or points percentage. They’re basically in the same situation they were a week ago, though the playoff picture has simplified around them.

There are basically nine teams fighting for eight playoff spots right now. Minnesota, Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim and Edmonton are pretty much locks. St. Louis, Nashville, Los Angeles and Calgary are vying for the three remaining spots. Winnipeg, Vancouver and Dallas are in “win or fall entirely out of the picture” territory, while Arizona and Colorado are flat-out done.

If the playoffs began today, the Flames would be golfing.

THIS PAST WEEK

The Flames won two of their three games since last Friday, and they played pretty well in all three games. They beat New Jersey (in overtime) and Pittsburgh (in a shootout), and narrowly lost in regulation to the New York Rangers.

THIS COMING WEEK

The Flames play twice in the next week. They play Monday against Arizona and Wednesday against Philadelphia, with both games taking place at home.

As for the teams the Flames are chasing?

St. Louis (one game in hand, two points up) plays three games against Montreal, Detroit and Vancouver.
Nashville (two games in hand, one point up) plays twice against Florida and Dallas.
Los Angeles (one game in hand, one point up) plays just once, against Arizona, as they too have their bye week this week.