Know Your Fighters
Robert Vollman
November 13 2011 11:17AM
If you're going to have someone whose only purpose is fighting, they might as well be good at it. The Flames have had goons like Andre Roy, Brian McGrattan, Krzystof Oliwa and Raitis Ivanans – some seriously bad dudes (and I don't just mean their hockey skills).
Flames Comparables: Reserve Forwards
Robert Vollman
November 12 2011 07:19AM
This year we're using the Snepsts system to project how many points each of the Flames may score this year. The Snepsts system, explained over at Hockey Prospectus, searches history for players with similar statistics (adjusted for era scoring levels) and uses their future performance as yardsticks for today's.
We've already looked at most of the Flames key forwards and defensemen, and this week we'll look at some of their reserve forwards: Lance Bouma, Stefan Meyer, Paul Byron and Greg Nemisz.
Black Box: Week 5
Robert Vollman
November 07 2011 04:34PM
Five weeks and 13 games into the season and the Flames are playing exactly .500 hockey, just like the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks. I didn't expect to ever put that sentence together.
Calgary's offense has been struggling, managing just 30 goals in 13 games, more than just Detroit, Los Angeles, Anaheim and the Islanders. Wow, another sentence I wasn't expecting to assemble.
Black Box: Week 4
Robert Vollman
October 31 2011 11:59AM
One month into the season and despite back-to-back wins the Flames are 2nd last in the Western Conference. On the other hand they're only 2 points out of the 8th-place play-off spot.
Rene Bourque leads the team with 5 goals, Alex Tanguay with 7 assists, Olli Jokinen with 28 shots (and 2nd to Tanguay with 7 points), and rookie Roman Horak leads the club with +3 (with 5 points thrown in for good measure). Captain Jarome Iginla is leading all forwards in playing time, but is 4th in shots – just 1 ahead of Lee Stempniak – has just 2 goals and 4 points, and sits alone at the bottom with a -3.
Ah, but these are just the so-called box car stats, let dive in to something more advanced!
Flames Comparables: Reserve Defensemen
Robert Vollman
October 27 2011 11:17AM
Every Thursday we're using the Snepsts system to project how many points each of the Flames may score this year. Now that we've moved on to players with limited NHL, we're switching to AHL-to-NHL Translations.
We've already looked at most of the Flames key forwards and key defensemen, and this week we'll look at some of their reserve defensemen: Derek Smith, Clay Wilson, T.J. Brodie and Brendan Mikkelson.
