Baseball-style standings are shown at the left. Even with the Wild losing 3 of their last 4, they're in a nice early season position; the rest of the division is still finding their way.

Eric Francis wrote a column in the Calgary Sun a week ago today predicting that the Flames (3-6-1 at the time) would miss the playoffs. I think (and thought) that this was premature, in large part because what he saw as the biggest problem, I think is probably an opportunity:

Last year, the Flames won the Northwest crown thanks to a 20-8-4 record in their division. This year they'd be lucky to be .500, costing them a top-eight finish.
[...]
Suggesting the Flames aren't good enough to play this spring has nothing to do with panicking.

It has to do with being realistic in a division that is leaving them behind.

The Flames, to date, have played 2 of 32 division games (1-1 vs. EDM, 0 games vs. VAN, COL, & MIN). Minnesota has obviously looked good so far this season, but the Flames have had their number recently (6-2 last year, IIRC). The other 3 teams are all basically .500, and the Northwest doesn't look like a power division (yet). And even if it is, the Flames could surely be the Big Dog on the strength of successful head-to-head results.

Will they? I still like their chances. They look excellent 5-on-5 in the last bit; they haven't allowed an even-strength goal in 193+ minutes (excluding the Guerin goal where Regehr was stepping out of the box). On the other hand, their special teams has been ten kinds of crappy, and while the upside of this is that the numbers are unquestionably going to get better, they still have to improve their play. Looking at mc79's numbers through the St. Louis game, the Flames are 20th or worse in everything: PP shot rate (25th), PP shot% (20th), PK "shots allowed" rate (21st), and PK Save% (26th). The cherry on top is being 22nd in the league in Penalty Differential, i.e. # of PKs relative to # of PPs.

The key math here is this (GD = Goal Differential):

10th in ESGD + 24th in PPGD + 24th in PKGD = 4-7-2, 12th Place (as of Sunday)

When one-third of the game is played on special teams, you simply can not afford for both to be dismal.

Here, by the way, is the full baseball standings for the league right now. I gave ties, arbitrarily, to the team with fewer games played.