It’s not a perfect science, but in the salary cap era (save for the shortened seasons), teams that have been in a playoff spot the morning of American Thanksgiving have wound up making the playoffs by an overwhelming margin.
Well, it’s Thanksgiving down south, and the Calgary Flames sit in fifth place in the Western Conference wild card race, four points out of the second wild card spot.
According to MoneyPuck.com, a popular website that tracks playoff odds among other things, shows that just three teams that are not currently in playoff posts at over 50% odds to make it at the end of the year. Those teams are the Pittsburgh Penguins (65%), New Jersey Devils (61%), and the Nashville Predators (51%). The teams in playoff spots that are projected to miss are the Detroit Red Wings (34%), Washington Capitals (27%), and the St. Louis Blues (22%).
The Flames are listed at 36% to make the playoffs, the 20th best odds.
With the Pacific Division almost a runaway with the Golden Knights, Canucks, and Kings well ahead of the pack, the Flames should be shooting for a wild card spot at best.
Time to show up
Largely due to a slow start to the season, the Flames are two games below .500. They are on a bit of a hot streak lately however, posting a record of 5–2–2 in their past nine games.
That being said, they will start a stretch that will be extremely difficult, the hardest schedule in the entire league based on several analytics websites. 11 of their next 15 opponents currently sit in a playoff spot; it will be a tough road back to the postseason for the slow-starting Flames.
Can the Flames climb back into the playoffs after missing last year by just one point? Time will tell, but the odds are not in their favour.
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