Flames Out, Kings In

Despite a valiant effort coming back during the second half of the season, not getting those first half results were very costly to the Calgary Flames, who failed to qualify for the playoffs, despite a convincing win over the Oilers on Wednesday night.  The Flames received no help from the Blackhawks or the Ducks, both beating the Blues and Sharks, respectively, to mathematically eliminate the Flames.  The Flames had the opportunity to sell off and start their rebuilding process at the deadline, but the roll they were on was just too great and they were not going to pass up the opportunity to make a run at the playoffs.

On the flip side of the coin, the Los Angeles Kings clinched their playoff berth with a shootout victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night.  Yesterday, I do believe I had written that the Coyotes would likely clinch as well, with an overtime loss, but that isn't the case, as the Regulation/Ovetime win tie-breaker is still involved with the last remaining team on the outside looking in on the Western side, the Dallas Stars.

The Carolina Hurricanes were the only other team to keep the playoff races at all interesting with a few days left, as they beat up on the Detroit Red Wings at home on Wednesday and kept the pressure on the Sabres and Rangers, vying for one of the last two spots in the Eastern Conference top eight.

Looking forward to tonight's games, there may only be four games on the schedule, but there is enough in these games to make the conversation interesting.

The Rangers can move to within a point of clinching their berth in the post-season with a win over the Thrashers on Thursday night.  Any win, regulation/overtime or shootout, would bring them up to 93 points, leaving just the tie-breaker between the Hurricanes and themselves to finish the season up.  The Hurricanes would have to win both their divisional games, but the Rangers would have to lose their last game at home to New Jersey to be eliminated then.  A Rangers loss in overtime would still earn them a valuable point, but the Hurricanes would have a better shot at them.  Needless to say, a regulation loss would be pretty bad.

The other game of note is the Dallas Stars playing host to the Colorado Avalanche.  If the Stars win in regulation/overtime, they'll move only 2 points back of Anaheim and Chicago for the last couple playoff spots, with a couple of games versus lesser opponents still to come.  A shootout win would invoke a look at their season series' against the Predators and Coyotes, if either team has the advantage over the Stars, they will clinch their spot.  An overtime/shootout loss, would give the Predators and Coyotes their spot automatically, while a regulation loss would include the Ducks in the teams that are able to clinch, since they already own the regulation/overtime tie-breaker, but the Blackhawks do not own the regular season series over the Stars, the race would still be alive, barely.

Two out of four games will be clutch, this should be fun!