Flames Weekend Notes: Glencross, Race for 8th and Kipper

These are just some randoms going into the weekend and the final pre-All Star break games.

- Roger Millions tweeted some bad news last night when he announced that Curtis Glencross would be out a minimum of 6 weeks with his MCL injury.

That's a huge loss for the Flames. Between now and their first game after the break it seemed like they'd have nearly their full complement of top forwards back with Alex Tanguay inching closer to returning. Having Michael Cammelleri, Glencross and a healthy Tanguay back for the top 6 would've helped with some of the scoring problems the team has been having. Now, it seems like late-Feb, early March for GlenX's return.

More on the race for 8th and Miikka Kiprusoff after the jump.

- Updated 8th place projection: On Wednesday the Dallas Stars were holding up 8th place according to points% and were on track for 91 points and the final playoff spot.

Today, the Dallas Stars still hold the inside track based on points% and are now on track for 90 points (rounded up 89.6). 52% of M&G readers favored around 94 points for the benchmark of 8th place. With some of the lower-tier playoff hopefuls slumping, the number continues to drop. The Colorado Avalanche are in 8th place according to the current standings and are also the hottest among the fringe - look for them to take over from the Stars before the all-star break.

- The Flames trail the Avs by 2 points and go into a critical game against their provincial rivals tonight.

Of course this is a must win, but when you combine must win with should win... well, that pressure hasn't exactly served the Flames well in recent seasons. However, last year, the Flames fed on the weaker teams - they'll need to continue that tonight as their next 3 games are against the San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks... thankfully all at the 'dome.

- For some strange reason, I've identified Miikka Kiprusoff's performance as crucial to the Flames success, so I've taken to following his sv% and split stats a little more closely to see what we can expect. Kipper seems to play better during weekdays (specifically Thursday and Friday) and worse on weekends.

Kipper is 17th among goalies with double digit starts in EVSV% at .929. This number has been rising of late.

On the road, he's 8-9-2, 2.51 GAA and .916 sv%

In January, he's 4-3-1, 2.17 GAA and .922 sv%

On Saturdays, he's 4-4, 2.40 GAA and .912 sv%

Vs the Northwest Division, he's 10-2, 1.94 GAA and .930 sv%

Against the Edmonton Oilers this year he's 3-0, 1.33 GAA and .947 sv% - in the one game at Rexall so far he's 1-0, 3.00 GAA and .897.