2017-18 Around the League | Congratulations Washington Capitals!

[McAsuno]

It looks very bleak right now for the Flames, but I wouldn't count them out officially until the math no longer works. And the math soon will no longer work.

Anaheim, Dallas and Calgary all have 73 GP. LA, Colorado and St. Louis all have one game in hand with 72 GP.

LA and Dallas both have a fairly difficult schedule to close their seasons. If they both win only 5 of their remaining games, they will both finish at 94 points. Calgary only has 33 ROWs, and LA has 37 ROWs (Dallas has 34), which is the first tie breaker after points. Calgary has to finish with more points than LA, it's their only hope because if LA wins 5 of their last 10 in regulation or OT that pretty much eliminates Calgary unless Calgary goes 7-1-1 to finish the season.

Then we get to the Blues.

St. Louis is at 36 ROWs and they have an easy to medium schedule to finish...half their games are against weaker teams and the other half are against good teams. They need 6 ROWs in their last 10 to potentially knock out LA and finish with 95 points. As I said earlier, they are unpredictable (because of their goaltending imo).

Dallas with their schedule will continue to fade....Id be surprised if they even temporarily made it back into a playoff spot.

I'd say the Flames are in 2-regulation loss territory; Sportrac has them down to a 3.5% chance of making it after today's games.

Funny how the blues thought it was done and pretty much became a seller at the TDL. How embarrassing is that for Calgary? What a joke of a team.

 

[Spawn]

Funny how the blues thought it was done and pretty much became a seller at the TDL. How embarrassing is that for Calgary? What a joke of a team.

Blues sold at the deadline last season with shattenkirk too and had a similar late run and made the playoffs. Must drive the players crazy on the team I imagine lol.

 

[Zaddy]

Blues sold at the deadline last season with shattenkirk too and had a similar late run and made the playoffs. Must drive the players crazy on the team I imagine lol.

To be fair, they've gone for it a number of times and wasted big assets without ever really coming close to winning the cup. They're pretty far from being a contender as it stands right now IMO. They need to wait a couple of years for guys like Thomas, Kostin, Thompson, Kyrou to become impact guys as well as Fabbri and Dunn continuing to develop. They're starting to build some good depth, would be stupid to trade that away right now.

 

[PaPaDee]

Pretty much a must win game for the Flames tonight.

 

[MoneyGuy]

My number 1 interest in the off season is to see who the Isles take with the Flames' first round draft choice.

 

[McDNicks17]

With Ryan Donato making his debut tonight, that means the Bruins' 1st(Pastrnak), 2nd(Donato), 4th(Heinen) and 5th(Bjork) rounders from the 2014 draft will have played on the big club this season.

Four top9 wingers with their first four picks. Not bad.

Hopefully Chia/Gretzky can do the same again here.

 

[oilers'72]

The NHL. 5 games to tell your grandkids about.

Columbus at Boston @ 5 PM SNE, SNW, SNP, TVAS, NESN, FS-O
Nashville at Buffalo @ 5 PM MSG-B, FS-TN
Florida at Montreal @ 5:30 PM TSN2 (regional), RDS, FS-F
Los Angeles at Minnesota @ 6 PM NBCSN
Calgary at Arizona @ 8 PM FS-A, SNW

 

[MoneyGuy]

The NHL. 5 games to tell your grandkids about.

Columbus at Boston @ 5 PM SNE, SNW, SNP, TVAS, NESN, FS-O
Nashville at Buffalo @ 5 PM MSG-B, FS-TN
Florida at Montreal @ 5:30 PM TSN2 (regional), RDS, FS-F
Los Angeles at Minnesota @ 6 PM NBCSN
Calgary at Arizona @ 8 PM FS-A, SNW

Dunno about that. Of things to tell my grandkids about that's not even top 100,000.

 

[oilers'72]

Dunno about that. Of things to tell my grandkids about that's not even top 100,000.

OK. Your great-grandkids.

 

[MoneyGuy]

OK. Your great-grandkids.

How is that better? If it's not even top 100,000 for grandkids it can only drop in priority with another generation.

Also, my kids aren't cooperating.

 

[Senor Catface]

If Calgary wins, their playoff hopes go from 3.5% all the way to...

...5.4%

Gooooood luck with that playoff push.

 

[Zaddy]

With Ryan Donato making his debut tonight, that means the Bruins' 1st(Pastrnak), 2nd(Donato), 4th(Heinen) and 5th(Bjork) rounders from the 2014 draft will have played on the big club this season.

Four top9 wingers with their first four picks. Not bad.

Hopefully Chia/Gretzky can do the same again here.

And three of those went the college route. That's something I wish the Oilers would do more, draft americans headed to college. It's a great path for development, maybe even the best one. Allows players plenty of time to bulk up and work on their game while playing against older guys. It's perfect. I guess the reason the Oilers historically have shied away from those guys though is that not many americans would be interested in signing in Alberta, but hopefully these days with McDavid and Drai it's a bit more alluring, especially for forwards/wingers (even more so given how weak our wing depth is).

 

[Drivesaitl]

Pretty much a must win game for the Flames tonight.

Every game for the Flames is a must right now. To have a realistic chance they almost have to win out. They probably will need 95-96pts to make a playoff spot

 

[Hockey Nightmare]

Unbelievable that Calgary has a goal differential of -15 and yet they can still make it. Contrast that with Dallas and St. Louis who at least have differentials of +12 and +8.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

that Donato kid looks pretty good for the Bruins
wonder who drafted him

 

[BlackDogg]

Marchand got Connored on that breakway. The refs really have no idea what to call - its all just whatever.

He basically was grappled and almost picked off the ice to prevent him from scoring and not even a penalty.

And columbus wins.

 

[Canovin]

that Donato kid looks pretty good for the Bruins
wonder who drafted him

Keith Gretzky?

 

[Ritchie Valens]

Every game for the Flames is a must right now. To have a realistic chance they almost have to win out. They probably will need 95-96pts to make a playoff spot

I really don't know if the second wild card spot will achieve that many points. As I said the page before, LA has a tough schedule and being overly conservative...could only win 4 of their last 10 taking them to 92 points without any OT losses mixed in. St. Louis would need to win 5 of their last 10 and Calgary 6-2-1. I'd say Calgary's elimination number for regulation losses sits at 3.

Echoing another poster above, they shouldn't even be in the playoff conversation with that bad of a goal differential and yet like a foul stench in the air, they just keep hanging around.

Edit: Staal quietly with 39 on the year...all you ever hear about in the Richard Trophy talk is Laine and Ovechkin. Good for Staal, what a find for Minny.

 

[Furious Nerd]

No whistles in the Flames game, so Hrudey has no time to provide his homer comments.

Good!

 

[Ritchie Valens]

LA chokes away a 2 goal lead, Minny up 3-2 with about 2 minutes to go.

... And LA ties it with less than a minute!! Totally redeemed themselves.

LA in OT...big win for them, reclaim 3rd in the division and put a little more stress in Hrudey's voice.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The Flames sure get a lot of power plays.

 

[Mr Positive]

The Flames sure get a lot of power plays.

what's funny though, is that them getting a PP that one time took a goal away. I was laughing at that one.

 

[Furious Nerd]

It says LA won in OT on nhl.com.

 

[Supermassive]

Flames fans have to be crushed by that. It’s pretty much over now.

 

[Furious Nerd]

LA scored with 0:47 seconds left in regulation to tie it up, and then with 0:34 seconds left in OT for the ROW.

Hrudey’s probably shitting himself.

Now, all we need is a fluke Arizona win for a perfect evening of hockey.