[flamesgod]

Originally Posted by getbak

You know you're in bad shape when the league changes the rules after the fact because of how badly things turned out for you.

Remember that the Flames had so many injuries down the stretch, that they had to dress less than a full roster because they couldn't afford to call up any replacement players. The rules at the time didn't allow a team to put a player on LTIR if there were less than 10 games left in the season (because LTIR requires a player to miss a minimum of 10 games, and the cap doesn't apply in the postseason).

After Regehr's injury, with 6 games left, the Flames only dressed 5 d-men for the final 5 games of the season. They went 2-3-0 in those five games, including a loss to the Canucks. Vancouver finished 2 points ahead of the Flames (and the Flames held the tiebreaker). One extra win down the stretch and the Flames would have had home ice against St Louis in the first round, instead of starting on the road in Chicago.


The Flames' defence in the final two games of the season was: Aucoin, Leopold, Negrin, Pardy, and Vandermeer. Aucoin was the only one who was in the top-5 for total ice time for defence on the team that season. Phaneuf, Regehr, Sarich, and Giordano were all out of action by the end of the season.

Brutal. Crazy how deep that blue line was though. Imagine if they were all healthy.