I dunno. I write a long Game Day piece about how good the Flames have been at even strength, and at the 29-minute mark of the game, less than 12 minutes have been 5-on-5. Eventually they got to calling penalties on only actual fouls, not possible ones (mostly - the tripping call on Rolston in the 3rd is one of the worst I've ever seen), and it was a decent game. But 13 non-coincidental minor penalties in the first 30 minutes? F*ck*ng Brutal. A few of the calls on Calgary were cheap, but Todd White probably deserves a formal apology from Dennis LaRue.

Also, Kipper was pretty bad in shootouts last year. I wouldn't say he got abused, but he didn't make enough big stops for sure, and his record stunk. No doubt he thought a lot about this lo these many months, and wanted to be better this year... So what happens? He gets beat by two perfect, unstoppable shots, and it was over. (By the way, I loved Playfair's move of making the first 3 shooters the 3 guys who scored in the last shootout. Not that he needs my backup - no one's going to raise their eyebrows at Tanguay or Huselius, and Richie scored.) Now Minnesota is 7-2 in shootouts; 2-0 in games settled in OT; and 6-11 in games settled in regulation.

The Wild will obviously be fortified by the return of Gaborik and Demitra. That's 8 figures of high-scoring Slovak goodness. And (kinda like Smyth or Iginla) you can't not love Brian Rolston. But right now, their team doesn't look good enough to take real seriously. Hopefully, that means they'll sweep the Oil at Rexall again.

The Flames have now played the rest of the NW Division, and the only team that might be good enough to beat them for the division title is the Oilers. Problem is, they're the Oilers, which necessarily means that with 5 days left in the regular season, they will be in position to finish anywhere between 7th and 10th in the conference. Calgary is going to finish 2nd or 3rd. It'll happen. Go Flames.