Player usage through 10 games of Geoff Ward
By Ryan Pike
4 years agoThursday’s loss by the Calgary Flames against the Montreal Canadiens was the 10th game for the Flames under interim head coach Geoff Ward. We now have a decently large sample from which to draw some early conclusions about Ward’s tendencies.
Over 10 games, Ward’s Flames are 7-2-1. They’ve played seven home games and just three games on the road, so the possession results might be slightly skewed since the Flames have last change at home and were able to put their players in fairly optimal situations.
Forwards
Here are the most common lines under Ward, in declining order. They’re listed with their Corsi For percentage, their Offensive Zone Face-Off percentage, and their five-on-five goals for and goals against.
| Line | TOI | CF% | OZFO% | GF / GA |
| Lucic – Ryan – Dube | 73:58 | 44.2 | 52.9 | 4 / 1 |
| Mangiapane – Lindholm – Tkachuk | 72:21 | 52.0 | 50.0 | 2 / 4 |
| Backlund – Monahan – Gaudreau | 58:43 | 51.2 | 66.7 | 5 / 1 |
| Rieder – Jankowski – Frolik | 46:34 | 53.3 | 46.2 | 2 / 3 |
| Lucic – Ryan – Gaudreau | 35:30 | 39.1 | 25.9 | 1 / 0 |
| Backlund – Monahan – Dube | 28:58 | 32.8 | 44.4 | 1 / 1 |
| Mangiapane – Backlund – Tkachuk | 28:03 | 39.6 | 47.8 | 0 / 0 |
| Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm | 25:16 | 50.0 | 62.1 | 2 / 1 |
| Bennett – Rieder – Frolik | 18:16 | 61.5 | 50.0 | 0 / 0 |
| Rinaldo – Jankowski – Frolik | 10:08 | 60.0 | 71.4 | 2 / 0 |
The Lucic/Ryan/Dube line hasn’t set the world on fire possession-wise, but they’ve scored goals and been pretty consistent. (And when Gaudreau joins the line in place of Dube its results get a bit worse, so it’s likely the optimal use of the three players involved.)
Swapping Backlund for Lindholm with Mangiapane and Tkachuk seemed to really improve their possession game. Similarly, Backlund with Gaudreau and Monahan is a small improvement over their performance with Lindholm.
The sample size is quite small, but the fourth line with Rieder at center does seem to be at least as good as their performance with Jankowski.
The results so far suggest that, for the most part, Ward’s tweaks have nudged the Flames towards a more optimal lineup than they were using under Bill Peters.
Defense
| Pairing | TOI | CF% | OZFO% | GF / GA |
| Hanifin – Hamonic | 114:33 | 49.2 | 44.9 | 6 / 5 |
| Giordano – Brodie | 110:06 | 47.4 | 40.9 | 4 / 2 |
| Kylington – Andersson | 57:43 | 52.7 | 71.8 | 3 / 1 |
| Giordano – Andersson | 51:28 | 50.0 | 55.0 | 3 / 1 |
| Hanifin – Andersson | 49:19 | 44.6 | 50.0 | 0 / 3 |
| Brodie – Stone | 37:16 | 44.0 | 47.8 | 3 / 1 |
| Kylington – Stone | 22:15 | 43.6 | 88.9 | 2 / 1 |
When Hamonic has played, he’s played with Hanifin. It’s been a solid duo, and it’s left the coaching staff to muck around with the remaining pairs. Of the available options, putting Giordano and Brodie together seems to be the optimal use of those two gentlemen.
That leaves Kylington and Andersson together, and Stone on the sidelines. That set-up, too, appears to be largely ideal given the possession results that they’ve seen.
Goalies
Through 10 games, Cam Talbot (2-1-0) has started three times and David Rittich (5-1-1) seven times. So far the alternating between the two goaltenders has been pretty logical and none of the starting decisions have been surprisingly or baffling.
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