The win meant little other than move the team to a 9th place finish in the West from 11th but 5 points from the post-season party.

  The sellout streak tells you all you need to know about Flame fans loyality.  A loyality the club must pay more attention to as it starts another all-too-early summer.

  The sellout streak started on Feb. 13, 2004. Earlier in that same 2003-04 season, the Flames played games in the ‘Dome with announced crowds of just over 13,000.  That’s 6,000 less than the nightly attendance from the 2011-12 campaign.

  The ’03-04 season was when the Flames concluded a 7-year playoff drought and brought back the sellouts.

  Now it’s three years without a post-season and for the first time in a while the Flames will go to the off-season freeing up money taking them $15-million-or-so from under last season’s Salary Cap maximum.

  Jay Feaster has been full-time GM for 10 months and his regrime now can start putting more of its stamp on the club.  It presents challenges and unknowns.

  The unknown makes the challenge more daunting.

  Setting the Flame foundation for the beginning of the future is between now and the end of July.  A time when Salary Cap numbers for the next season aren’t likely to be known.  Since the ’05-06 season those numbers were based on revenues from the past campaign.  Assessments are that the max, based on that premise, will be in the $70-million range from the present $64.3M.

  Problem is that before the next season can start a new Collective Bargaining Agreement must be hammered out between the NHL and its players.  Thus, the Cap numbers are most likely to be decreased.  Nobody can predict where that will be and when teams will know. Negotations between the two sides aren’t schedule to get going until after the playoffs. Traditionally, the bartering takes a while measured more in months than days.

  This all affects possible trades before and after the NHL Draft plus signing players when the Free Agency period starts on Canada Day.

    The off-season Flame changes could be the greatest in years.  The team’s fan base will be watching closely.

  The chorus followed “I’ll believe it when I see it”.

  Perhaps, the winngest goalie in Flame history and only Vezina Trophy winner, won’t play 70 games.

  That’s the decision Sutter will make heading into the final two games of the Flames season.

  Two games that determine whether the Flames finish 9th, 10th or 11th in Western Conference standing.  Eighth is out of the question, otherwise, Kiprusoff would play both in a playoff spot was in the line.

  He’s now played 69 games.  One more and it will be 70 matches for a 7th straight season, which either way this will be his lowest game total since his first season here in 2003-04 when he arrived in Nov. It’s doubtful he’s play both games.  However, he is one win shy of 35, which, if attained would make it 35-or-more for 7 years in succession.

  If he does play in one game, perhap it would be Thursday against Vancouver since the Canucks are in a battle with St. Louis for #1 in the Western Conference.  Saturday’s 2pm game is against Anaheim with the Ducks are out of the post-season race.

  Then there’s Henrik Karlsson to be considered.  It’s often said that when teams are the situation the Flames are in, it’s important for players to play well since their jobs are on the line.  If the Flames need these last two game to decide the futures of any of the players in front of the goaltenders they’s haven’t being pay attention over the 80 already played.

  However, they do need to get a further read on Karlsson.  He’s played only 8 NHL games this season. He’s got another year on his contract.  Other than last Saturday in Vancouver where Sutter wanted to give Kiprusoff a rest he called on Leland Irving, who some feel may now be #2 on the team’s depth chart.

  Karlsson missed almost 2 months with a knee injury.  Perhaps he needs these two games for management and coaches to make further assessments on him.

The Flame season won’t go to a post-season for a third straight year as Game 80 again spelled the end of a late season bid for a playoff spot.

One win over games 72 thru 80 took away a playoff spot which the Flames had for only a couple times through the season.

Saturday’s 3-2OT loss in Vancouver ended the quest but Brent Sutter’s squad stepped up strongly after prior home losses to Los Angeles and Colorado pushed them to the brink.

Henrik Karlsson, making his first Flames start since Dec.4, played solidly making 31 saves but had no chance on Andrew Ebbett’s winner at 3:58 of the extra frame. Ebbett was in tight on Karlsson when he deflected a Henrik Sedin set up beyond the lanky goalie.

Karlsson admitted to being shaky and even a bit rusty, on the Canucks opening goal 5:08 into the first period.

The Flames eventually took the lead when Ollie Jokinen scored in the 2nd period and Mike Cammalleri early in the 3rd.

Only Roberto Luongo’s strong work in the Canuck nets prevented the Flames from scoring more.

Sutter’s squad now plays out the string at home Thursday against the Canucks and Saturday afternoon vs Anaheim. Then the post-mortum, rather than the more desired post-season, begins with many pressing issues to be determined, not the least of which is Sutter’s future since his 3-year contract expires this summer.

  You could debate that when he went to the sidelines on March 4 with an upper body injury his absence a key reason why the Flames are looking up in their late season quest to make the post-season.

  What can’t be debated is Cammalleri’s impact since his return to the line-up last Saturday in Dallas.

  He scored the lone Flame goal in that 4-1 setback on Saturday. Then on Monday had a goal plus 2 assists sparking the Flames 5-4 home victory over the Stars.

  The Flames won the first 5 games they played without Cammalleri, but then lost 4-straight a trio of them by one goal including 2 losses in shootouts. He could have been the difficult in a couple of those contests.

  Playing centre on a line with Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay, Cammalleri, normally a leftwinger, took command in the 2nd period when he scored the goal, which gave the Flames their first lead of the game, and then setup the team’s 4th and 5th tallies.

  Two key elements also helped provide the badly needed triumph.

  The Flames resilience rarely seen in recent games as they surrended goals in the first minute of both the first and second periods allowing Dallas to take one-goal leads generally deflating developments.  However, both times the Flames got those goals back.

  The powerplay, which been in a slump, generated 3 goals.  Just the second time all season they’ve scored a trio in the same game.

  Ollie Jokinen registered the Flames first goal, ending a 7-game slump.  Alex Tanguay scored the GWG with his first tally in 5 games.  Captain Jarome Iginla ended his 5-game pointless streak with a pair of assists.  Blake Comeau and Mark Giordano also pulled the trigger.

  In ending the 5-game losing streak, the Flames moved to within 2 points of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 5 games remaining.

  The quest continues on Wednesday when Los Angeles visits the Scotiabank Saddledome against a Kings team now coached by Darryl Sutter, the GM who let Cammalleri get away after his 39-goal campaign here in 2008-09.

  First, the team he now coaches, the Los Angeles Kings, thoroughly defeated the team he basically built, the Flames, 3-0.  Then 10 minutes after the contest in the hall adjacent to his current team’s dressing room, he greeted his young grand-daughter with huge smiles and hugs.

 On this night, the Kings’ bench boss had to be pleased with the team GM Dean Lombardi built and then brought him in to coach in December.  Not that he’d care now, but Sutter couldn’t have liked what he saw from the squad he mostly put together when he was Flames’ GM.

  His younger brother, Brent, clearly wasn’t, but he wouldn’t point individual fingers, however, as a group felt his Flames weren’t good enough.

  Two King players that Darryl Sutter publicly called out a month ago, were big contributors Wednesday.  Captain Dustin Brown notched his 20th goal of the season and now has 20 points in the last 17 games since that sermon.  Anze Kopitar, who was also signalled out back then, assisted on the first two LA goals.

  The Flames were shutout for the 6th time this season, 3rd time in the Saddledome.

  In giving Kings’ standout goalie, Jonathan Quick, his club record 9th shutout of the season, the Flames had 19 shots.  The most disturbing to callers to the post-game “Overtime” Show hosted by Pat Steinberg  was the mere 4 shots the Flames had in the 3rd period while behind 2-0 before LA got an ENG from Justin Williams with 1:09 remaining.  

 A big reason was positionally how the Kings were about as perfect as you could get and the Flames had all kinds of difficulty getting the puck out of their own zone and getting into Kings’ territory.

  Should the Flames fail to find a way to make the playoffs over their remaining 4 games with help elsewhere, this summer will then become Jay Feaster-time.  The Flames current GM has been handcuffed to a degree that hasn’t he hasn’t had a major chance to put his stamp on the team he inherited from D. Sutter.

  One of the keys, to Feaster’s chores is assessment he’s making on personal over the current stretch run.  It’s pivotal.   His players have another pivotal game Friday at home against Colorado.

It was the best effort and performance of the Flames 3-game trip but the one producing the least result.

The 4-1 loss in Dallas did have a familiar Flame refrain, lack of scoring.

The 3-game trip produced only 4 goals. Combined with a home loss to Columbus last weekend its 5 goals in the 4 matches. The difference was that this time, Calgary didn’t get a point as they did in the preceding 3 games since the Flames didn’t take the Stars to extra time.

Mike Cammalleri returned from sick bay and generated some spark and the only goal at 12;37 of the first period.

By then the Stars had taken advantage of a a slow Flame start to build a 2-0 edge.

The Flames peppered Stars goalie Kari Lehtinon with 29 shots over the last 2 periods but couldn’t score. Jamie Benn tallied 2 for Dallas, which again jumped from 8th place #3 seed in the Western Conference.

The Stars come to Calgary for a return engagement on Monday. Its the start of 4 games in 6 nights with 3 games in the Saddledome.

The Flames may have to win all 4 to get back in the playoff race.

Mike Cammalleri, the only Flame to score on a shootout over the last 5 games and 17 attempts, skated Friday in Dallas and is possible for Saturday’s match vs the Stars.

The sharp shooting winger has been out the last couple of weeks with an upper body injury. He has been skating in Calgary the last few days.

Cory Sarich, who dazzled in Colorado in a collision with David Jones, is back in Calgary recovering and feeling better. He could play during next week’s 3 game home-stand.

Meanwhile, defenseman Derek Smith suffered an upper body injury in Thursday’s game and is out day-to-day and will miss at least the first half of back-to-back vs the Stars.

Having picked one point in each of the last 3 games, the Flames will enter Saturday’s clash 2 points from the last playoff spot with the next 4 matches all against teams in the race.

A winning streak is a must.

Brent Sutter will take heat for his selection of shooters in the Shootout.

However, that’s not the reason they were beaten again in extra time Thursday in Minnesota.

The Wild got the only goal of the 4-round shootout when Devin Setoguchi scored, giving the Minnesota crew a 3-2 win.

The reason the Flames lost was because as defenseman Anton Babchuk put it on our post-game show, “we took the pedal off after a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period”.

It was the 15th time since Feb.1, the Flames have blown leads in games. The 6th time its been a lead of 2-or-more goals.

It was also the 5th loss in a Shootout for Sutter’s squad and the coach did his best to try and end that slump.

After losing 4-straight going with his top gunners producing only one goal on 14 shots with the injured Mike Cammalleri the lone marksmen, the coach shook it up selecting lesser lights.

Matt Stajan, Lee Stempniak, Blair Jones and Blake Comeau all got to shoot and all failed against Josh Harding.

The usual shooters Iginla, Jokinen, Tanguay and Glencross, all non-scorers in the previous Shootouts losses, watched.

I don’t blame Sutter for trying something new, unfortunately, the gamble failed. It left the team with one point for a 3rd game in succession when 2 is badly needed.

Now its 2 game vs Dallas. Saturday afternoon in Big ‘D’ and at home Monday.

The effort, the will and the tenacity was prevalent but in some ways the breaks weren’t as the Calgary Flames suffered another extra time loss there 14th in 19 games.

The NHL kings of extra time, Colorado Avalanche posted their 16th win past the 60-minute securing a 2-1 triumph over the Flames on. Tuesday in Denver.  David Jones scored winner at 3:51 of OT.

Since reeling off a season-best 5-straight victories while scoring 21 goals, the Flames offensive machine has mis-fired with just one goal in each of the last 3 games — all losses, the last 2 in extra time.

Tuesday was the Flames best showing of the 3 matches.  Unlike the games vs Edmonton and Columbus, they started strong securing a 1-0 lead when Matt Stajan scored 1:47 in to the game.

That was all the Flames would get against Semyon Varlamov, who made 32 saves and now starting to make the Avs trade with Washington for first and 2nd round pick last summer looked better and better as the NHL’s youngest team get closer to making the playoffs after a one year absence.

Tuesday was a playoff-type game with plenty of intensity.

The Flames had the better of the scoring chances including a pair of breakaways by top sniper Jarome Iginla.
The Flames got Tim Jackman back from the injury list but may have lost defensemen Cory Sarich. The steady defender appeared to suffer a head injury in an OT collision with Jones.  Sarich immediately left the game dazed.

The Flames now head to Minnesota for a Thursday assignment.

The one point gained in Denver leaves the Flames 2 points from 8th place in the West while the Avs take over 7th place.

  Considering they’d won the last 2 occasions when they played on St Paddie’s Day perhaps Saturday is the day they should have played rather than book-ending the big day for the Irish by playing on Friday and Sunday.

  Getting just one of a possible 4 points over the Western Conference bottom-feeders clearly put a dent in the Flames playoff driving after running off a season-best 5-game win streak.

  Brent Sutter’s squad got the point on Sunday losing 2-1 in a shootout to last place Columbus.

  Or, more precisely, to the goaltending of Steve Mason, who had to come off the bench 12:30 into the game when starter Curtis Sanford suffered a lower body injury.

  Coming in cold, Mason got hot quickly as the Flames fired 5 shots at him before the intermission. Then 16 in the 2nd  in a period where coach Sutter felt the Flames played their best middle period of the season but couldn’t score despite a 16-3 shot advantage.

  Clearly, the bad start hurt the Flames as it gave the Jackets some life where a strong Flame start may have taken them out of it earlier.

  Friday in Edmonton, the Flames got off to a wobbly start again, falling behind 2-0 in the first period and then could score just once on Devan Dubnyk losing 3-1.  Jordan Eberle had a goal and assisted on both goals by rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

  In the NHL there are no automatic wins and no automatic losses.  Thats’ why they play the games.  In fact, at this stage of the season, a team needing wins might have a better chance against a team your battling with for a playoff spot than a team out of it as the Jackets and Oilers are.

  Despite the lost weekend, the Flames actually gained ground in there bid to make the playoffs.  They started the weekend in 11th place 3 points out of 7th.  They still 11th but just 2 points away from 7th.  However, if they had swept the 4 points they be alone in the #7 position.

  It places added pressure on the Flames for the 3-game trip, which starts Tuesday in Colorado continues Thursday in Minnesota and ends on Saturday at Dallas.