2014: A Review

9 years ago

As quietly as 2014 began, it ended. Now it’s 2015. The Calgary Flames had a very interesting year, filled with ups, downs, and a ginormous line brawl in Vancouver.

The team played 81 games and amassed a 42-35-4 record.

The year began with Brian Burke as interim general manager and Bob Hartley as a tenuous coach with an expiring contract. It ended with Brad Treliving as general manager and Bob Hartley with a contract extension.

What else happened?

GOALS

The Flames scored 212 goals in 2014 (about 2.6 goals per game), while allowing 214 (also about 2.6 goals per game). The team’s leading goal-scorers in 2014 were as follows:

Sean Monahan (22)
Mark Giordano & Jiri Hudler (tied with 19)
Mike Cammalleri, Curtis Glencross & Mikael Backlund (tied with 14)
Johnny Gaudreau (13)
Dennis Wideman (12)
Joe Colborne & Paul Byron (tied with 10)

POINTS

When you factor in assists, the team’s scoring leaders were as follows:

Mark Giordano (65)
Jiri Hudler (58)
T.J. Brodie (44)
Sean Monahan (42)
Curtis Glencross (38)

Sean Monahan and Mark Giordano played all 81 of Calgary’s games. T.J. Brodie played in 80 games. Lance Bouma played in 78, Jiri Hudler played in 73 and Paul Byron played in 71.

In a weird quirk: Mike Cammalleri had 25 points in 31 games (0.80 PPG) and Johnny Gaudreau had 31 points in 39 games (0.79 PPG). Yes, Gaudreau effectively replaced Cammalleri’s production as a rookie.

POSSESSION

The Flames had a 46.4 CorsiFor percentage in 2014. That’s fifth-last in the NHL, ahead of Buffalo, Toronto, Colorado and Edmonton. The Flames also get habitually out-shot in every game but, in 2014, managed to use special teams to balance things out a bit.

Individually, the team had a handful of players with their heads above water Corsi-wise:

Mikael Backlund (52.8%)
Mike Cammalleri (52.8%)
Mark Giordano (52.1%)
T.J. Brodie (51.6%)
T.J. Galiardi (50.4%)

Bill Arnold and Shane O’Brien were also 50% or higher, but neither player a lot of games, and both were sheltered to all heck.

The worse regular players were:

Brandon Bollig (36.9%)
Raphael Diaz (39.6%)
Brian McGrattan (40.0%)
Tyler Wotherspoon (40.5%)
Kevin Westgarth (41.0%)

Don’t look so shocked. Fourth line/third pairing players are usually the worst players possession-wise, because otherwise they wouldn’t be relegated to that role.

FACEOFFS

Face-off “leaders”, regular centers only.

Joe Colborne (51.4%), 262 draws
Matt Stajan (48.9%), 735 draws
Sean Monahan (48.8%), 1430 draws
Mikael Backlund (48.5%), 977 draws
Josh Jooris (47.1%), 360 draws
Markus Granlund (38.3%), 432 draws

Woof. (But hey, Monahan took a lot of face-offs for a guy who’s just turned 20.)

GOALIES

And finally, Calgary’s 2014 goalies!

Karri Ramo: 38 games, .911 save percentage, .917 even-strength save percentage
Jonas Hiller: 26 games, .917 save percentage, .932 even-strength save percentage
Reto Berra: 11 games, .885 save percentage, .894 even-strength save percentage
Joni Ortio: 9 games, .906 save percentage, .881 even-strength save percentage
Joey MacDonald: 4 games, .903 save percentage, .932 even-strength save percentage

2014 wins, by goalie:

Karri Ramo (19)
Jonas Hiller (13)
Reto Berra & Joni Ortio (tied with 4)
Joey MacDonald (2)

A third round pick would’ve been an over-payment for Reto Berra.