[GranteedEV]

1) Calgary - Call it a homer pick, but honestly, there's like 4-10 points we "should have" gotten this year where the flames just had "one o those games" (Toronto, Buffalo, Carolina, Florida, come to mind). Plus they play most of their games in the west where the compete level is simply much higher.

2) Montreal - No brainer, Carey Price is the 2MVP in the league after Mark Giordano. He probably has the Hart locked up this year. But I've never had any real respect for the East when it comes to evaluating records.

3) Winnipeg - I wouldn't put too much stock in how we've destroyed them. Hutchinson is a good goaltender and they usually dominate that score adjusted corsi stuff.

4) Vancouver - They can't seem to score goals worth ****. Luckily Ryan Miller and Eddie Lack have been outstanding, but I'm not sure that's going to be enough. To me they're basically the late Iginla/Kipper era Flames minus the fact that we hate them... even if they get into the playoffs it's a first round exit.

5) Ottawa. Meh. I don't really watch them and I don't really care about them.

6) Edmonton. I know they're really LOL-worthy, but I see them at least being competitive with Nurse/Brossoit/Draisatl/(Hanifin/Eichel/McDavid). They have some serious issues they need to iron out make no mistake, but they're a very young team overall..

7) Toronto. I thought we should have beat them when we played them, but the Flames did play their most hilariously bad 2nd of the season and get beat by bad puck luck in the first. They're just so poorly build with terrible contracts. And man, did anyone see that goal Bernier let in a few games ago? That's career-destroyer bad. AND they play in the East.