I know everyone is hot on LA because they've picked up their play recently, but I want to share with you the difficulty of their schedule. They are 18-6-6 at home and 7-12-6 on the road. They have 16 road games and 11 home games remaining. If they go 8-8 on the road, and 7-4 at home (15-12), they finish with 92 points. If the Flames were to finish with 92 points, they would need to go 13-12-1 for the remainder of the season. The Sharks have already played 58 games and also have a huge road trip in their schedule. To finish with 92 points, they would need to go 13-10. The way this looks to me is that the Flames are in a bit better shape than SJ and LA. However, all of CGY, VAN, LA, and SJ have massive eastern road trips. The performance on these trips will determine who gets in and who doesn't. Best case is for LA to not get in, because the Flames would most likely play either SJ or VAN in round 1.
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