After a strong first 20 games (11-6-3; .625), the Flames have settled into being more of a .500 team over their last 19 games (7-8-4; .474, 8-8-4 if you go back to 20 games)
If you look at 10 game segments:
Game 1-10: 5-4-1 - 0.550
Game 11-20: 6-2-2 - .700
Game 21-30: 3-5-2 - .400
Game 31-39: 4-3-2 - .556
I believe it was always Peter Maher that said you get the best indication of what a team is from game 20 to game 40 and I think that around .500 or maybe slighlty better is probably the truest indicator of what this Flames team is.
So in terms of their remaining 43 games and the pace they play the rest of the season
Playoff Pace: .604 - 52 points of 86 available remaining (95 points - 0.579)
Current Pace: .551 - 47 points (90 points - 0.549)
Last 19 game pace: .474 - 41 points (84 points - 0.513)
Bottom 10 pace: .430 - 37 points (80 points - .488)
Bottom 5 pace: .383 - 33 points (76 points - .463)
They are really starting to settle into that mushy middle where they pick 12-16 and give the pick to Montreal. They either need to step their game up again to get back into the playoff position, or they need to bottom out a bit to fall into the bottom 10.
Now the thing that might get them into the bottom 10 is if their poor road play continues. They are 13-6-3 at home (.659 point percentage at home), compared to 5-8-4 on the road (.412 on the road) and have 24 road games remaining vs 19 home games.
The other thing would be if they were to make a trade to move some of the veteran assets...
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