March 22nd News & Notes: A Case of the Mondays

I don’t know if it’s the chilly, overcast conditions in Calgary today, the fact that it’s Monday, the loss to the Wild yesterday that added another shovel full of proverbial dirt to the grave of the Flames‘ 2009-10 season, or pehaps a combination of all those factors that has me feeling down today, so I thought I’d take a tour around the ol’ blogosphere to alleviate my case if the blues. Here are your news and notes from around the web for Monday, March 22nd.

First off, and update on the condition of Daymond Langkow: He stayed overnight in hospital as a precaution and will be flying back to Calgary today to be further evaluated by doctors via NHLFlames and Boomer960 on twitter. Excellent news, considering how severe the injury could have been. Full Flames Update here; still no news on when we might see Higgins or Glencross back in the lineup. 

(Update: Langkow is now listed as 'out indefinitely')

The Playoff Death Watch is on at Puck Daddy. I will admit that I have kind of been in denial about the possibility of the Flames missing the playoffs until recently, and a combination of unfortunate events appears to have all but sealed their fate, with the Flames' chances of making the post season seemingly hovering between 16 and 18%. For everyone theorizing that the Flames are going to have to catch the Avs for eight place, they still have a 96.5% chance at playoff hockey according to Sports Club Stats. I really don't know what to make of all this, but I figured some of you might find it interesting.  

Speaking of the combination of unfortunate events that may possibly lead to the Flames’ premature demise, the Predator’s late victory fueled by two goals from none other than Dustin Boyd that put Nashville eight points up on the Flames could very well have been one of them. At the least, it inspired this brilliant depiction by Gripping The Stick Too Tight (via Hit The Post)

Brent Sutter faces criticism (Five Hole Fanatics, The 4th Line Blog), and rightfully so, for starting Vesa Toskala in such an important game. Apparently it’s not the last we’ll see of Vesa either. One bad game should not define a player’s time with a team, assuming Toskala doesn’t return, but if the Flames don’t make the playoffs it very well might.

Oilers management is supposedly dreaming up a scenario in which they will receive another top three pick for Andrew Cogliano, Sam Gagner, Ales Hemsky, or any combination of the three. As it stands, they can’t do any worse than second overall. I doubt that any combination of these players would be enough to fetch another lottery pick, but what do I know? Our one and only first rounder belongs to the Phoenix Coyotes and we have nothing to show for it. Thanks again, Darryl.

Those very same Coyotes took over the Pacific division lead from the Sharks last night and tied the Blackhawks for first in the West in the process with 97 points as a result of the shootout winner scored by Adrian Aucoin. Aucoin has scored on all five of his shootout attempts this season, four of which have been game winners. I’m as tired of hearing about the Coyote’s meteoric rise to Western Conference supremacy as everyone else, but it really is amazing. Just another case of poetic justice for former Flames.

Pierre Lebrun is predicting a Vancouver-Washington final. Lord help us. 

A look at why the Sharks current struggles could benefit them going forwards and the theory that both the Sharks and Blackhawks are trying to avoid a first round matchup with the Wings at all costs. 

If the Flames season does in fact end in early April, they should at least be thankful that they've already shored up their blueline, because it's slim pickings when it comes to free agent defecemen. 

An update on former Flames first rounder Kris Chucko, who missed twenty-nine games this season with a concussion, further putting a dent in his hopes of ever making it to the big league. Also an update on Dan Ryder (via Hockey Or Die)

The aforementioned blog run by Jonathan Willis is also running a weekly feature called Calgary Flames 09-10 Notebook, documenting the week's events in Flamesland. M&G is linked there along with a bunch of other good Flames blogs, I suggest everyone checks it out. 

That's about it for now, as always let me know if I forgot anything or add anything of interest in the comments. 

by Hayley Mutch