Anaheim Ducks (43-28-5) at Calgary Flames (38-28-11), 6:30 pm
Anaheim Calling and Matchsticks and Gasoline -- hey, hey, hey, it's Fat Alberta!
The Calgary Flames recently took a critical road trip through California, and while they did surrender two points to every BoC opponent, they still managed to extract two standings points themselves.
March 20: Ducks 5, Flames 4 (OT)
March 21: Kings 2, Flames 1 (SO)
March 23: Sharks 6, Flames 3
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Battle of California 13, Calgary Flames 8
Two standings points is sort of like picking up a win, although in Calgary's situation that road trip (along with the relentless western conference out-of-town scoreboard) really left them in a tough predicament. Here's the graphical damage that it did to Calgary's playoff chances (currently sitting at 6.4%):
Source = Sports Club Stats (50/50 method).
So because of the two points, I'm not going to pull out the old State Rape gag today, but because of the damage to the Flames' playoff chances I still have to taunt a little bit. Here's the compromise:
My tribute to the 'Calvin pisses on things' phenomenon.
The Ducks can truly piss away the Flame's playoff hopes with a victory today, and my guess is that it's going to be of the storybook variety. Anaheim has trailed in six of its past seven games, yet they have a sparkling 6-1-0 record over the stretch with every contest decided by a single goal. The dramatic heroics lately have really been off-the-charts.
Let's just hope the magic can continue.
Prediction: Algebraically: Ducks x, Flames x-1. Goals by a, b, d, and a late winner by f. I should be around for game comments tonight -- stop on by for the drama.
Go Ducks.
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