Gameday: Avalanche vs Flames

Tonight marks what could be a turning point in the Avalanche season...or the first nail in their coffin. On a 4-game losing skid, the Avalanche maintain a seemingly futile grip on the 8th and final playoff spot in the West with Nashville and Edmonton - heck, even Chicago - tugging at their heels. They will be facing a Flames team which recently took down the Minnesota Wild to pull within one point of the division lead - and looked good while doing it. If the Avalanche were to win tonight and the Oilers pull out a W over the Wild, the Avalanche's playoff hopes will dip below the 50% mark. Conversely, if the Avalanche win and the Wild take down the Oilers, their playoff hopes climb to 82%. Quite the swing that could happen tonight so hopefully the players come prepared. Inconsistency and Frustration Unfortunately, the players sound more frustrated than fired up based on Dater's latest article in the DP . Of course no player is going to flat out say that so everybody is reading between the ... [link]