When having a discussion about the likelihood of the Calgary Flames making the playoffs, you have to start with the acknowledgement that it was never very likely.

The Flames are bad, as has been covered in this space before, but Mark Giordano was one of the few actual good players on the roster. He, along with defense partner T.J. Brodie, Jiri Hudler, Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and maybe one or two others if you really want to be generous have had actual good seasons by just about any measure. The rest of the club is a mishmash of guys who are average at best, but more commonly just bad or “bad but who have gotten every bounce to go their way” this season (here the hockey world turns its lonely eyes to Dennis Wideman, who somehow entered last night with 12 goals in 62 games and was one away from tying a career high).

So it's no surprise that, though they held a playoff spot following Tuesday's overtime win against lowly Philadelphia — in which they blew a 2-0 third-period lead — they were tied with the much better and quick-rising Los Angeles Kings for the final playoff spot in their division. Betting on the Flames to outpace the Kings over the last 19 games of the year seems a fool's errand, and indeed they entered Thursday's game with the Bruins with a less than 31 percent chance of making the postseason. Which sounds about right.

Their possession numbers, by just about any measure, are third-worst in the league ahead of only the pathetic Sabres and the pitiable Avalanche. They got every bounce to go their way for the vast majority of the season's early goings, which is why they sit now in a playoff spot rather than well outside consideration. And in spite of that, Giordano and Brodie are excellent.

The travails of this pairing are at least partially well-documented because of Giordano's Norris consideration both last season and this. They log the most minutes by far — about 25 per night apiece across these two campaigns — and play basically the toughest competition in the Western Conference. And by dint of the fact that they're the only actually good defensemen on the team (with all apologies to the stunningly overrated Kris Russell) they're starting so many shifts in their own zone as to be borderline unbelievable. We're talking 57 percent or so, and that's despite being the team's best offensive defensemen as well.

Giordano has already missed two games and entered Thursday night still just a point out of the NHL lead among defenseman; and unlike Kris Letang, Brent Burns, P.K. Subban, and Erik Karlsson ahead of him, doesn't really get much in the way of offensive help — the Flames' No. 2 center is Mikael Backlund who has a career-high of 39 points so, y'know. In terms of points per game, he was second. Brodie doesn't have the offensive numbers to back up what most people would see as a legitimate Norris candidacy (only 36 in 63 before that Bruins game) but everything has gone Giordano's way for two straight seasons, because he really is just that good.

So it really is a shame that Giordano is going to miss 20-something games for the second season in a row, and cost himself a matching pair of trophies as a consequence (and probably an Olympic gold medal). Letang or Shea Weber are almost certainly going to win — and if it's not Weber it will be an honest-to-god shocker — in his stead.

Consequently, any hope Calgary might have had of hanging around the playoff race is pretty much on the ocean floor already, because Giordano really is that much of a difference-maker.

The last two seasons, when he's on the ice the Flames have a corsi-for of 50.8 percent. It's not great or anything, but it's pretty solid for a team with that little talent. When he's off the ice, they're 42.9 percent. Basically he takes them from being the Maple Leafs to the Capitals. Which is an insane difference, especially when you consider it's basically facilitated by one player. (Well really, it's two players, because of how good Brodie is as well, but we'll get to that in a minute.)

Look at the Flames with Giordano and without the last two seasons. They're like two entirely different clubs, one of which is at least in competition for a playoff spot, and the other is a lottery team (these stats don't include last night's game).

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