Quirks

 

 

While browsing the internets last night after the Flames game, I was shocked at some of the things I was reading statistically. The site Behind the Net-where I was spending a lot of time-is full of interesting statistical tidbits and factoids. Among them?

– The Flame who’s missed the net the most this season at even strength (besides Jarome Iginla) is one Mr. Tim Jackman. He’s also had the 5th most shots on the team at even strength.

– Calgary is 5th last in the league at generating shots, with an average of 27/60 at even strength. The teams behind them? Edmonton, New Jersey, Minnesota and Anaheim.

– Lee Stempniak has 11 even strength goals this year, which is tied for second on the team. Curtis Glencross also has 11 thus far.

– Last night was the first time Lance Bouma’s been on the ice for a goal against this season. Previously, he had 9 games of scoring invincibility. This is quite impressive given the quality of competition he’s been playing-although, it’s a very small sample size to draw from.

– Brent Sutter doesn’t match lines, full stop. Evidence? A player like Jarome Iginla-aging and a defensive liability-should be playing the softest minutes and have the best zone starts possible. This year, though, Iginla is 3rd among forwards in Corsi relative quality of competion (which means he plays the third hardest opponents) and his zone start percentage is at 48.2%. Sutter seems to do more of that “4th line out after icing” than we thought.

 – It’s getting tiresome defending Mikael Backlund. Another plus to the kid? He’s spent more time on ice against Henrik Zetterberg than any other player in the league this year at even strength. He also happens to have the 2nd lowest ZS% on the team while also playing the 6th best competion AND the 2nd best Corsi Rel on the team – 10 more Corsi events better then the other team per game.

-The last time the Flames were over 50% in 5v5 shot ratio was November 8th, 2011. The Flames are currently sitting at a season even strength shot ratio of 47.3%-meaning this season they’ve given up 130 more shots then they’ve taken. Last year at this point, the Flames had taken 143 more shots then their opponents at even strength, resulting in a shot ratio of 53.0%.

It’s no shock to look at these numbers and see that goal production has decreased by 14 goals year-over-year. That’s equal to 2.5 wins, which would put the Flames is a playoff spot. Funny that last year poor goaltending kept the team out of the playoffs and this year it’s the only thing keeping them in the playoff hunt.