Late for any of this to matter, but thought a last look would be interesting. All season we've been told by media that 96 points would be needed while this chart showed 90-92.
have a look now ... looks like 90 would do it. Flames, Wild and Stars in tight.
In the East ... same thing 90 points and Washington out (big if the MVP needs a playoff spot)
CGY needs to avoid 5th - throw games if they have to. CGY can beat MIN whether or not they have home ice. I give them little chance vs. ANA.
__________________ I wish the heck I could like fish, I just hate the taste of it . . . I wish I could eat one, they look so good . . . - Gil Fisher (The Fishin' Musician):
CGY needs to avoid 5th - throw games if they have to. CGY can beat MIN whether or not they have home ice. I give them little chance vs. ANA.
I couldnt believe that we over took Dallas. For the past month the concentration has been 3rd or 6th and to avoid 7th or 8th. Now with Dallas slipping away 5th is possible and a date with Anaheim? Yikes.
Id rather finish 7th than 5th, personally. San Jose is a good team and all, but Anaheim is nasty and built for the playoffs.
It looks like that we'll see pairings between the Wild, Flames, Stars and Ducks. Pretty much random who will play who at this point however.
I still can't see Dallas finishing 6th, while the NW beats the crap out of itself I see them slipping up into 5th again to face off against Anaheim first round, letting the Flames draw into 3rd or 6th, taking on the Wild.
Not sure I agree about avoiding Anaheim in favour of San Jose or any other team. At this point, San Jose looks like a very serious Stanley Cup contender, Detroit is a bit weaker then last year and Anaheim is not as good a team as last year.
Looking at the Flames, my big hope is that we win one round this year and lets see what happens. Flames tend to manage better against slower teams, they have a lot of trouble against young, fast teams. San Jose is not only young and fast, they are also big, i would want to avoid them at least till the semi finals. Certainly, based on the regular season we have done well against Minnesota and should matchup well against them. After that I see little difference in who we play, Dallas and Anaheim are slower teams then Colorado, Edmonton, and Nashville. Vancouver, if they make it will be very tough to beat after Luongo is back to normal.
So bring them on and lets avoid 7 place at all costs!
Dallas will smarten up their play to end the regular season. They'll get the 5th seed, Turco will do his playoff disappearing act, and the Stars will get romped in 5 games.
I know the Ducks would be tough but so what? If you want to win the big prize then you have to beat the good teams. Plus the Flames owe them one. If the Flames end up drawing the Ducks I say, bring it on! Perry, Pronger, Bertuzzi, Getzlaf, what's not to hate there. I can almost feel my blood pressure rising thinking about it.
CGY needs to avoid 5th - throw games if they have to. CGY can beat MIN whether or not they have home ice. I give them little chance vs. ANA.
Agreed. Calgary/Anaheim would be messy. When I saw on Sportsnet last night that Calgary was in 5th, I looked up at who was in 4th and got a little queasy. Well we've got a game in hand on Minnesota, so the ball's in our court now.
The way things are shaping up, I'm hoping for 6th! Even 3rd could mean a date with Dallas.
So what happens if in our last game we're faced with
a) Win and play Anaheim
b) Lose and play Minnesota.
Do we play for a W no matter what? Do we play our farm team? Do we score on our own net? I'm not kidding.
The Flames should never tank a game. Tanking will be the biggest blunder. No one on the Flames wants to get past the first round and say "well, this is all I really wanted to accomplish." The Flames want to win the Cup and tehy'll have to face the best teams sooner or later.
Sure it might be preferable first round match-up if we lost and faced Minnesota in the first round. But they're still going to go up against a nasty team in the second.
My biggest problem with tanking a game is the resulting mentality of the players. They should never think it's okay to lose. If they are to win the Cup they must be thinking win win win. It's not going to be easy and going into the playoffs with a losing mentality certainly won't help.
v. Anaheim: 1-3
v. Dallas: 2-1-1
v. San Jose: 3-1
v. Minnesota: 6-1
v. Vancouver: 2-3-1
v. Colorado: 3-2-3
v. Nashville: 2-1-1
I would take any team but Anaheim or Detroit. Anaheim doesnt appear as dominant right now because Pronger is out, Guiguire is hurt and Perry is out. Once Pronger comes back and him and Niedermayer can play 30+ minutes each, the Ducks are the favorite out of the west.
think of how cup champs have done of late though in their attemt to defend ... not sure Anaheim wouldn't be a bad thing.
True... the Lightning and Hurricanes both had down years afterwards, but the Ducks are a different kettle of fish. Playoff Pronger and Playoff Niedermayer are almost unfair.
think of how cup champs have done of late though in their attemt to defend ... not sure Anaheim wouldn't be a bad thing.
I'm on the fence with Anahiem. The conventional thinking would be that it is hard for teams to repeat but their best players took time off so they aren't worn down like others that have tried to repeat. In that sense I don't think they are your typical team trying to repeat.
On the other hand they aren't as deep as they were last year and have a few injuries that will make it a little easier for the first round. I think if the ducks falter it will be in the first round.
I'll take Anaheim just because it would probably be like watching 70's hockey. This wouldn't be that tippy tappy euro crap, this would be full on praries hockey with lots of hits, fights and intensity.
If a team is going to run through the playoffs, they need that first round to be a tough and nasty battle so that they can quickly learn what it takes.
Ottawa didn't get that lesson last year and they were totally unprepared for the intensity that the Ducks bought.
In 2004, the Flames had that rough and tumble brawl against the Canucks, squeeked through and were better for it.
in 89, again the Canucks who played a physical hard checking 7 game series until Pepper broke in the clear made the greatest move in Flames history and roofed the puck from between the dots. they learned from that and were better for it.
I'd rather get the tougher team out of the way at the start then at the end.
Bring on the Ducks, or the Wings or Dallas or whoever. I don't care.
Location: I ain't playing nose tackle in a 3-4 defence
Exp:
Yeah, if you want to do anything in the playoffs you have to beat good teams. So what the fart give me the Ducks if thats in the cards. If you can beat them you should be good enough to beat anyone.
__________________ "I don't think it's me personally, I really don't,"
Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell
Projected Standings - last look (mar 27)
