A team that drops all three meetings to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks has no business reaching the playoffs
Mathematically, the Calgary Flames are still alive in the chase for a Stanley Cup playoff berth.
Realistically, they are all but finished after serving up Tuesday’s dud against the cellar-dwelling Chicago Blackhawks, and losing to them for the third time in as many meetings this season. (Think about this: Calgary managed one single point in three games against the Blackhawks.)
As the Flames lick their wounds from their 4-3 loss to the Blackhawks, they will try to rebound when they face the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.
Calgary’s situation is, to put it blunt, dire.
With four games remaining in the regular season, the Flames sit two points behind the Jets, who also happen to own one game in hand. But to actually punch a ticket to the playoffs, the Flames must vault past the Jets, since Winnipeg owns the tiebreaker if the two clubs finish with the same number of points.
In short, the Flames must run the table to finish the season, which includes a road game in Vancouver and then home games against the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks, and hope the Jets go into a tailspin.
The Flames had legitimate hope going into Tuesday’s game. All they had to do was beat a Blackhawks team that went into their meeting on an eight-game losing skid and then beat the Jets.
Instead of running roughshod over against a Chicago franchise that began tanking for the Connor Bedard draft last season, the Flames were dropped again.
Three strikes and you’re out.
Here are five more thoughts after the buzzer.
SHOT THEMSELVES: There are plenty of damning issues from that game, but what stands out is Calgary’s miserable third-period attack. How does a team fighting for its playoff lives manage only one shot on goal in the first 13 minutes of the period, which started out tied and became a 4-2 deficit in the blink of an eye?
NET PAINS: Who do you tap to start in goal in Winnipeg? We won’t know until the pre-game warmup, but coach Darryl Sutter certainly has a conundrum on his hands. In theory, he should turn to number-one netminder Jacob Markstrom, since he hardly saw a heavy workload against the Blackhawks. However, that’s two consecutive starts Markstrom has simply not done the job. On the flip side, Dan Vladar won his last game — Sunday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks — but hardly looked at his best.
KADRI’S STRUGGLES: Maybe it’s a case of the thumb that required surgery during last year’s playoffs is still not 100 percent, but whatever the cause, Nazem Kadri’s puck-handling continues to be a problem. Kadri’s giveaways and inconsistency passing the puck, not to mention all the times he simply loses the handle while trying to skate through opponents, were front and centre too often in this game.
TIME TO SHUFFLE THE DECK: After being a healthy scratch in the last seven games, and nine of the last 10 outings, it must be time to re-insert rookie Jakob Pelletier into the lineup. The Flames have lacked energy for the past couple of games, so give the kid a chance to provide a boost.
ONE POSITIVE NOTE: This game aside, the Flames are a better team with Chris Tanev in the lineup than without him. After missing six games due to an upper-body injury, Tanev saw 18:33 of ice time and blocked a few shots.