Calgary Puck

I’m a patient guy.

When you hear Brian Burke and Brad Treliving desperately trying to temper expectations after a remarkably successful season that featured a playoff birth and series win, I get it.

The Flames won a lot of games after trailing.
The Flames won a lot of games despite being out “fancied”.
The Kings, Avalanche and Stars all had off years, and should step back into the “norm” when the 2015-16 season comes around.

The Flames were destined to be in a battle and possibly slide back out of the playoff picture, two occurrences that don’t for a second suggest anything is wrong with the rebuild as it stands, nor take the lustre off of a great 2014-15 season.

Did you notice that word “were” in my last statement?
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The NHL Entry Draft is one of the most exciting days on the NHL calendar.

Sure no games are played, but future games are envisioned, both in terms of players selected in the 7 rounds and in transactions completed on the draft floor.

Teams are shaped, futures are made more clear (or at least we tell ourselves this), and winners and losers are declared.

For years my rule of thumb in looking back at draft success was the two players selected after each and every Calgary Flames pick. The origin of that saying has something to do with the allowable width of a stick used to hit your wife, so I’ll leave that alone, but the origin of my two pick rule can be traced back to the 1997 draft, and for me will always be known as my “Marian Hossa” rule.
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First off I’ll say it; I hate predicting playoff series involving the Calgary Flames. Hate it. Hate.

Ask me what will happen in Montreal, Manhattan or Washington and I’ll give you a winner, the number of games and why in a second, but a matchup with Calgary involved and it’s really tough to see the forest for those damn trees.
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They say championship teams are built through the draft, not through trades and in the case of the Flames certainly not on July 1st.

The Flames more so than most NHL franchises, have fond little when it comes to true foundational pieces on Canada Day.

The Bruins famously signed Zdeno Chara, a player that went on to win a cup and captain the team for years. The Leafs authored in one of their brief tenures of success when they added Curtis Joseph in the late 90s.
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A quick look at the Western playoff race and the difficulty of schedule for each of the teams involved.

Table looks at the winning percentage of every opponent for every team broken down by road and home winning percentages in order to come up with a road, home and overall degree of difficulty and a ranking for each category.

Click on the image below to enlarge!