Are the Calgary Flames’ playoff hopes burned out?
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna discussed the Flames’ playoff chances in the West with 19 games to go.
The duo agreed that until the ice-cold Calgary team becomes more selective on offense, their expensive roster is going nowhere.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Things are going so badly in Calgary that they were booed off of the ice. Their head coach Darryl Sutter said, “yeah, I would have booed them too.” Everyone knows that they have been junk as of late. Just two wins in their last 10 games; in that span, they are 28th in points percentage in the NHL. Is it over? Is this the obituary for the Calgary Flames season?
Mike McKenna: I think we’ve carved the tombstone. There are only 20 games left, 19 left for Calgary. Are they really going to be able to make up a 6-point gap to make it in? I just don’t know, I don’t think so. Here’s the reason why: the players they brought in to replace Johnny Hockey and Matthew Tkachuk simply haven’t gotten it done.
Whether it’s on the players or the coaching staff, whatever it is, you’ve got Mikael Backlund, Tyler Toffoli, Dillon Dube, Blake Coleman, and Jakob Pelletier all ahead of Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri in points since Feb. 1. How are you going to win a lot of games like that? You’re not.
I know everybody lumps it all on the goaltending. Daniel Vladar won 6 straight in January, he’s lost 2 or 3 recently and he looks human again. The last time Jacob Markstrom won a game when he allowed 3 or more goals was Dec. 20. He has to allow 2 goals or less to win, and I think that’s caused him to press. I think he’s trying too hard and that comes out at times.
Look at Huberdeau: 40 points in 60 games. Kadri: 45 in 63. Both of them have just regressed closer to their career norms, Tyler, even below. They’re just not getting good scoring chances; Calgary dumps the most pucks on net from low scoring percentage positions of any team in the league and they get nothing to show for it. It’s not a surprise. Don’t look at shot totals, look at the chances that they create. It’s just not there in Calgary, and I don’t see that changing this season.
Tyler Yaremchuk: People always say that “they outshot this team 55 to 28. How did they lose?” When they’re all just wrist shots with no traffic from the high slot, you’re not going to get a lot of offense doing that.
Granted, they have run into some hot goalies, but this is a team only projected to have a little more than $1 million in cap space this offseason. Brad Treliving is not going to have room to rework the roster because he already did that last summer. I don’t know what the Flames will do if they miss this year. I don’t think the Flames have a 14-5 run in them; it’s beginning to look like we know the eight teams that will make the playoffs out of the West.
You can watch the entire show here: