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The 2017 Playoff Chase: getting bye
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Ryan Pike
Feb 10, 2017, 16:00 ESTUpdated: Invalid DateTime
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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.

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