Where they stand in the National Hockey League: Calgary Flames -NHL Feature
Calgary Flames are right back where they were nearly one year ago and it certainly is not something they hope on repeating this time around as they stand at the last playoff spot in the Western Conference with a good chance to of keeping it heading into
the postseason.
Will Calgary be able to maintain their position as the season comes closer to the end or not, is the question on every Flames followers mind.
“We can’t drop our guard. We’ve got to stay with it. There’s been absolutely nothing accomplished. We’ve put ourselves in a position that we wanted to be in at this point in time,” said Calgary Flames head coach, Brent Sutter.
The Flames have two players that are obviously the most important to the franchise at the moment in terms of performance and if they cannot handle the pressure, than no one can.
Captain Jarome Iginla and goalie, Miikka Kiprusoff, are the two men that can help Calgary finally reach the playoffs and potentially make their mark in the postseason.
At 34, Iginla might not have that many hockey playing years left in him and the last time he saw the Stanley Cup Finals was during the 2004 championship series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which unfortunately the Flames lost in the seventh game after
putting up a tough fight.
This season, Iginla has been leading the Flames as usual, but instead of taking the spotlight like he is accustomed to, the veteran forward allowed his teammates to shine as well. He currently boasts a 59 games played performance in which he has 47 points
(23 goals, 24 assists).
Along with Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff has a major role to play in Calgary’s run for any championship as one of the league’s most underrated goalies definitely has the capabilities to make a Tim Thomas performance and write his name in concrete in history.
Kiprusoff has played in 51 games so far with the Flames and out of those, 27 are wins along with 17 losses with a .924 save percentage and 2.23 goals against average, both ranked ninth overall in the league.
Calgary also recently acquired a top notch forward from the Montreal Canadiens, Michael Cammalleri, who can definitely be a high contributor for the team with his postseason experience.
Currently the Flames are in a good spot, but the only thing that might downplay them at this time in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season is if they lose back-to-back games. Straight losses were something we witnessed last season and
it definitely did not go well for Calgary in any way as they remained ousted of the playoffs.
“The bottom line is that last year we were in a good spot, and then we had a tough patch,” said Flames defenseman, Mark Giordano. “You can’t have a losing streak of three or four games at this time of year. It’s just going to bump you right out.”
Putting your money on the Calgary Flames could be regarded as a safe bet as they ready themselves to enter the playoffs even though it means to hold on to the last spot, which is always a fight till the last game.
Calgary still has a long way to go from securing that ticket but have hopefully learned from their mistakes in the past.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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