As of the end of Saturday night's home shutout loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Calgary Flames were six points behind the eighth-place Colorado Avalanche – with three extra games played.

Hell, they were one point behind the Nashville Predators, a team treading so much water that they sold most of their useful veterans in the past 10 days and their GM said he would retire in a couple months. And like the Avalanche, the Preds have three games in hand.

They've now lost five in a row, and they're just 9-10-6 since the calendar flipped to 2023.

So let's just say it's over. While the Flames have plenty of talent on the roster, the odds that they go on the kind of run that even puts them back in the playoff conversation feel like they're pretty close to zero.

To be fair, they've lost a ton of one-goal