The Numbers Round-Up – Round 1

The first round is over and the Calgary Flames have dispatched the Vancouver Canucks.

How did they do it?

Well, they were pretty damn good at home, not very good in Vancouver, and managed to do their best to minimize the effectiveness of the Sedins in the confines of the Saddledome.

(Granlund and Raymond split time.)

At home, the only line that significantly took it in the teeth was the Backlund/Bennett/Colborne trio. The Stajan line was given the sledding against the Sedins primarily, and while their Corsi was a bit dodgy over three games, their ability to block shots effectively meant that their Fenwick was pretty decent.

On the road, everyone was decent to good except for the Monahan line, which – as we’ve discussed earler in the series – is because they were targeted by the Canucks in a strength-versus-strength match-up with the Sedins.

(Wotherspoon and Potter split time.)

Russell and Wideman get the tough match-ups at home, while Brodie and the two guys he plays with (Engelland and Schlemko) have good numbers because they get the lesser lights. Not particularly shocking, but makes sense. Also impressive: the Corsi/Fenwick split – indicating blocks – for the majority of the top four defenders is utterly massive.

Nobody is all that great on the road, but their Corsi/Fenwick differentials also don’t vary much.

It seems to further support that the Flames were much more effective at home.

I’m purposefully cherry-picking here just to provide a brief cross-section.

The Canucks top players were very good at home and pretty good on the road. But the depth players weren’t great in either area. Calgary seems to have won the depth-versus-depth match-up in terms of the analytics.

Oh, and also in terms of scoring goals and winning games.