Fun Flame Milestones
12 years ago
When the playoff hunt is over, the various milestones are the only interesting things worth watching that remain. You know about the big milestones, like Jarome Iginla’s amazing 11 consecutive 30-goal streak or Jay Bouwmeester’s iron man streak, having recently passed Billy Harris into 7th all-time, but what about the more trivial milestones?
For example, most points by a Finnish-born Calgary Flame – Olli Jokinen recently secured that lead earlier this year.
Most points by a Finn
Finnish Flame GP G A PTS Olli Jokinen 231 58 105 163 Pekka Rautakallio 235 33 121 154 Kari Eloranta 255 12 96 108 Toni Lydman 289 19 74 93 Niklas Hagman 106 17 25 42
The single season record is Pekka Rautakallio, whose 68 points in 1981-82 is 9 points ahead of Jokinen’s current total. Miikka Kiprusoff’s 9 career assists pulled him ahead of Ville Nieminen into 7th, needing 6 more to catch Kari Jalonen.
Olli Jokinen’s fine season is actually the 4th best points-wise for a player his age.
Single-Season Points for a Calgary Flame 33-year-old and up
Flame PTS Jarome Iginla 86 Sergei Makarov 70 Jean Provonost 67 Olli Jokinen 59 Phil Housley 55
Only a player’s best qualifying season is included, otherwise Jarome Iginla’s current campaign would be up there too.
Jokinen’s linemate Curtis Glencross has also had a strong season, and his shooting percentage ranks among the highest in Flames history.
Single-season Flame shooting percentage
Flame SH% Sergei Makarov 32.3 Gary Roberts 27.0 Joe Mullen 26.2 Hakan Loob 25.3 Kent Nilsson 25.2 Curtis Glencross 25.0 Joe Nieuwendyk 24.1 Willi Plett 23.9
Again, only a player’s best single-season shooting percentage is included. With a little luck Glencross could easily move as high as 4th, ahead of Hakan Loob, the only Swedish-born player in the NHL to score 50 goals in a season – Kent Nilsson had 49.
Injuries to Glencross and other Calgary forwards forced them to use 25 different players to fill those 12 positions, a total they’ve exceeded only twice in their history.
Forwards used, Calgary Flames
Forwards Seasons 27 1999-00 26 1995-96 25 2011-12, 2006-07, 1997-98, 1994-95
To save you from looking it up, Calgary made the playoffs in only two of these cases: the strike-shortened 1994-95 and 2007-08. Another interesting fact – in almost every case the coach was fired at the end of the season – hopefully Brent Sutter, who just passed Terry Crisp, can move up the list of total games coached before that happens.
Total Games Coached, Calgary Flames
Coach GP Bob Johnson 400 Fred Creighton 348 Al MacNeil 251 Brian Sutter 246 Brent Sutter 241 Terry Crisp 240
Brian and Brent Sutter are the only ones on the list who haven’t coached a single Calgary Flames play-off game. In fact, only three other Flames coaches have failed to see the play-offs – Greg Gilbert (121 games), Don Hay (68 games) and Guy Charron (16 games).
At least Sutter beat New Jersey and Carolina, teams against whom Calgary’s had the best historical record.
Highest points-percentage, head-to-head
Opponent W-L-T-OTL PTS% New Jersey 58-22-11-2 .694 Carolina 38-17- 7-1 .667 Cleveland 15- 7- 4-0 .654 Minnesota 39-19- 4-7 .645 Florida 11- 7- 3-2 .587
Their worst record is against the Boston Bruins (.392), followed by Montreal, Buffalo, and Philadelphia. Good thing they don’t play those teams very often!
Here’s an obscure one – Alex Tanguay was another Calgary Flame who had a strong season, and with just 4 more assists he can become only the 9th Calgary Flame to have three seasons with at least 40 assists and a +10.
Single seasons with 40 assists and +10 for a Calgary Flame
Seasons Qualifying Players 9 Al MacInnis 4 Theo Fleury, Gary Suter 3 Doug Gilmour, Jarome Iginla, Sergei Makarov, Joe Mullen, Joe Nieuwendyk
All of these players had far more opportunities to earn 40 assists, +10 seasons, while Alex Tanguay could do it 3 seasons out of 4 – and on far less dominant teams, too.
Speaking of obscure records, Derek Smith is going for one – most points by a Calgary Flame named Smith. He’s currently locked with Brad Smith, but will probably need another full season to catch Steve.
Most total points by a Flame named Smith
Smith GP G A PTS Steve Smith 102 1 20 21 Brad Smith 49 7 4 11 Derek Smith 47 2 9 11 Mark Smith 54 1 3 4
Now onto the worst records, including the worst single-season plus/minus by a Flame. Unfortunately it would only take one really bad night for Tim Jackman to secure that dishonour.
Worst single-season plus/minus by a Calgary Flame
+/- Players -24 Guy Chouinard, Kent Nilsson, Robyn Regehr, Jacques Richard -23 Joel Bouchard -22 Keith McCreary, Willi Plett -21 Valeri Bure, Jim Peplinski -20 Dave Lowry, Bob Murray, Kent Nilsson, Bob Paradise -19 Tim Jackman, Corey Millen
Jay Bouwmeester isn’t that much further behind with a -16, and gets far more playing time than Jackman.
In nets the only race to watch is whether Henrik Karlsson can work his way down the list of worst total winning percentages for a Calgary Flames goalie. He has a ways to go.
Worst winning percentage for a Calgary Flames goalie
Goalie Win% Curtis McElhinney .265 Andrei Trefilov .281 Grant Fuhr .300 Henrik Karlsson .375 Dwayne Roloson .418 Minimum 20 GP
Snuggled between Grant Fuhr and Dwayne Rolson – at least he’s in good company. Leland irving is .357 after 7 games. Finally, there’s room for one more obscure franchise record:
Most obscure statistical records in a single FlamesNation column
Columnist OSR Rob Vollman 11 Kent Wilson 4 Justin Azevedo 2
YES!
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