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The 2017 Playoff Chase: The picture gets clearer
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski / USA Today Sports
Ryan Pike
Mar 17, 2017, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 17, 2017, 16:14 EDT
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Welcome to the 10th week of our Western Conference playoff race coverage. The playoff picture has become a lot clearer over the past week or two, as there are eight teams in playoff spots and one team on the outside with a snowball’s chance of making the postseason dance. The Flames are fairly comfortably in a playoff spot, and it’ll take a fairly epic collapse for them to fall out of the top eight spots.
Let’s check out the race as we begin the weekend!

WHERE THEY STAND

Team
GP
W
Pts
Pct
ROW
Div
Chances
% Change
Blackhawks
70
45
95
.679
42
CEN
100%
none
Wild
69
43
92
.667
40
CEN
100%
none
Sharks
70
42
91
.650
40
PAC
100%
none
Ducks
70
37
84
.600
34
PAC
98.6%
up 0.4%
Oilers
70
37
83
.593
33
PAC
98.9%
down 0.2%
Flames
70
39
82
.586
35
PAC
93.4%
down 1.0%
Predators
70
35
81
.579
33
CEN
94.2%
up 13.1%
Blues
70
37
79
.564
36
CEN
95.5%
up 12.7%
Kings
70
34
75
.536
32
PAC
19.3%
down 23.1%
Jets
71
31
69
.486
29
CEN
0.1%
down 1.5%
Stars
70
28
66
.471
28
CEN
0.0%
down 0.4%
Canucks
70
28
65
.464
24
PAC
0.0%
down 0.2%
Coyotes
70
26
61
.436
20
PAC
0.0%
none
Avalanche
69
20
43
.312
20
CEN
OUT
none
(Chances courtesy Sports Club Stats.)
The Flames head into the weekend sixth in points and points percentage.
As with our last update, there are basically three races going on right now:
  • Anaheim, Edmonton and Calgary vying for the two Pacific Division spots.
  • Nashville and St. Louis are fighting for the last Central Division spot.
  • Calgary, Nashville, St. Louis and Los Angeles are fighting for the two wildcard spots.
Once again, Los Angeles’ odds have dropped in the past week by a big amount. They’re not playing terribly, but the teams ahead of them keep winning and time is rapidly running out for the Kings to close the gap. Based on their seven-point cushion, it’s really beginning to look like the Flames are going to be in the playoffs.
If the playoffs began today, the Flames would be playing San Jose. There’s a decent chance they could also end up facing Anaheim or Edmonton, though.

THIS PAST WEEK

The Flames won two of three this week, even with some cracks appearing in their game. They beat Winnipeg and Pittsburgh after rough starts, then lost to Boston.

THIS COMING WEEK

The Flames play four times before next Friday. They have Dallas tonight, Los Angeles on Sunday, Washington on Tuesday and Nashville on Thursday. They won’t be able to clinch this week, but they can get themselves on the verge with a good week.
Focusing in on Anaheim, Edmonton and Los Angeles – in terms of the divisional race and Calgary’s ability to clinch eventually:
  • Anaheim (two points up): they play Buffalo, San Jose and Edmonton.
  • Edmonton (one point up): they play Vancouver, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Colorado.
  • Los Angeles (seven points back): they play Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

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