Quote:
Originally Posted by Imported_Aussie
Looking at the West, these are the teams that I see that are clearly better than the Flames:
Chicago
LA
St. Louis
Anaheim
San Jose
Minnesota
Dallas
Colorado
That's 8 teams who I see doing way better than the Flames. One of those teams has to bomb for a playoff chance. Then you have teams like Vancouver, Nashville, Arizona who could all finish ahead and I would not be too shocked. IMO Flames are fighting with Winnipeg and Edmonton for last spot in the West
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The problem with this list of 8 teams, is that 5 of them are in one division. It's completely not out of the question that one of those five gets crushed enough by it's own division that there is a wild card spot open for a fourth team in the Pacific Division to make the playoffs, especially when that fourth place pacific team has a higher percentage of games against terrible teams like Edmonton.
Plus the same eight teams never make the playoffs in back to back years.
If a fourth team from the Pacific makes that playoffs, it has to be at leasts one of Arizona, Vancouver, Edmonton, or Calgary. Edmonton is liekly going to take a step back from last season, even though they were already 14th out of 14. Vancouver seems more likely to take another step backwards than forwards. Arizona is who they are, always just in or just out.
Also, what if one of the California teams takes a stumble - perhaps due to a bunch of injuries?
Not saying that Calgary is going to make the playoffs, but far more unlikely things have happened. There are plenty of reasonable (but still unlikely) scenarios that would result in the Flames having a chance of making the playoffs - of course all of them involve the Flames taking a major step forward. If our prospects are in any way as good as we think they are, a step forward certainly isn't out of the question.