Don’t look now, but someone woke up the Calgary Flames. They are now in first place in the Pacific with 34 points thanks in large part ot this streak. It’s always surprising to see a team make a hard charge like this, but it’s particularly jarring to see a team in first place with a negative goal differential.
The Pacific isn’t a very good division this year. Calgary doesn’t have enough points to be a Playoff team in the Eastern Conference, were there to be some sort of freak realignment before the playoffs ended. Some might call it parity, but I think a realization that is more concrete is that any hot or cold snaps like the Flames are coming off of will lead to some significant changes in the standings. The two wild card teams in the west are also in the Pacific, and 8th place Los Angeles is only 5 points behind the Flames.
Calgary is undefeated n the month of December after failing to win at all this season until the 4th game of the season. Many of the games in their streak have been one goal games, with a game against Arizona won in overtime and another against Minnesota won in a shootout, but they aren’t just inching past everyone they play. They’ve also managed to throttle the Ducks last Sunday 8-3 and they beat Winnipeg last night by a score of 6-2.
Their victory in Winnipeg was feuled by Dougie Hamilton, who scored twice. By himself, he tied the Jets. Sean Monahan is the tie that binds all these games together, collecting a point in each of the 6 games of the winning streak. Monahan, still only 22, now has 17 points on the seasson, which means he only had 11 at the beginning of the month. Monahan is functioning as something as a bellweather for Calgary.
It’s a tight race in the Pacific, and it’s ripe for a young, developing team to take it. Most people thought it would be Edmonton that would make the jump this year, but the Flames are proving that Calgary is not to be forgotten.
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