Want a positive in Calgary's four-game skid? The Flames are down to ninth from the bottom of the NHL standings
Want a positive in Calgary's four-game skid? The Flames are down to ninth from the bottom of the NHL standings
We’re number nine! Sure, it’s from the bottom, but that situation has become a best-case scenario for the flickering Calgary Flames.
Now on a four-game losing skid, extended with a sub-par performance in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the second-from-the-bottom Chicago Blackhawks featuring Connor Bedard, the Flames have sunk to 24th overall.
Let’s be real, the positive from how the Flames went from in the mix for a playoff berth at the trade deadline to where they stand before facing the St. Louis Blues on Thursday is all about the draft and the lottery.
The club sitting 24th overall will have a 5% chance of winning the lottery and with it selecting Macklin Celebrini first overall. The odds of bumping up to second overall are 5.2%. There also exists the chance of falling to 10th (23.5%) or even 11th (1.7%).
For all their lack of success — constantly in the mushy middle with the odd year of joy — the Flames have rarely been near the top of the draft board. The only top-five pick in Calgary history was Sam Bennett in 2014. Cory Stillman (1992), Daniel Tkaczuk (1997), Rico Fata (1998), Sean Monahan (2013) and Matthew Tkachuk (2016) were all chosen sixth overall. When the franchise was in Atlanta, the Flames selected Jacques Richard (1972) and Tom Lysiak (1973) second overall in their first two years of existence.
Even having a top-10 pick is a rarity for the Flames. Not only have they last selected a pick in the top 10 with Tkachuk in 2016, but the Flames have chosen in the top 10 only three times in the past 20 drafts since their run to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final. (Do we need to remind fans about a club that’s had four first-overall picks in that span?) Moreover, the Flames have chosen in the top 10 on only nine occasions since moving to Calgary in 1980.
That said, where the Flames end up at season’s end is something of a mystery. They are only one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and two back of the Buffalo Sabres. Plus, the Flames have two games against both the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks in the final 10 outings. Falling much further down the standings will be a surprise. The Seattle Kraken are tied with Calgary, but the Flames have a five-point edge on the 26th-place Montreal Canadiens.
But, that’s why they play the games, and understandably more and more Flames fans are hoping for the opposition to continue the Calgary slide.
