‘Fall flat’: Calgary Flames clinging to playoff spot midway through the season

Midway through the 2022/23 season, the Calgary Flames are sitting uncomfortably in the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference (WC).

The city’s team has a 19-14-9 record with 47 points in the WC, and they sit in ninth place and trail the top team Las Vegas Golden Knights by nine points.

The Flames are currently tied with rival Edmonton Oilers with a game in hand and are also 10 points ahead of the Vancouver Canucks.

With a tight playoff race already in play and a couple of losses back-to-back, a Calgary Flames analyst says the team needs more than what they’re giving.

“They’re in the middle right now, which is tough because you’re climbing against teams ahead of you that are picking up points on a nightly basis,” said Logan Gordan, a Calgary Flames host and reporter with Sportsnet 960.

“You’re gonna need to go on a stretch where you win five, six, seven games if you really want to cement yourself in the playoff picture.”

Getting into the playoffs has seldom been easy for the team, and some fans CityNews spoke with say they thought the team was revitalized in the offseason, but not much has changed.

“This team seems to be the same old every year. We’re struggling to get into the playoffs, and then by the time we get there, we’re so burnt out we barely get past the first round,” said one fan to CityNews.

“All the hype in the beginning, we sign the big guys, and then we fall flat.”

The Flames lead the league in shootout and overtime losses, which Gordan says has “helped keep the flames afloat when it comes to playoff positioning.”

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Some fans say something needs to change if a Stanley Cup run, and a re-ignited red mile, remain in the future.

“Avoiding overtime and trying to finish it off in the third period. I think the stats for the flames agree that they’re really good in the first period, they drop off in the second, and they really fall flat in the third,” said another fan to CityNews.

The team still has another 40 games of the season to play out after they came out of an overtime loss against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. The Flames hope to tie up its two-game appearance at St. Louis Thursday night.