Young Stars Fancy Stats: Game Three

General Usage Notes:

• The Flames got killed at 5v5, for whatever reason. At least half of the team finished with a CF% below 50%, with Mikkel Aagaard bottoming out at 8.33 CF%. We’re going to talk about that for most of this schpiel.
• Most surprising of the nine was Mark Jankowski, who finished at 41.67 CF% with 57.14% OZS. It wasn’t a first line problem at all, as Tkachuk and Carroll both finished above 50% CF. I debated putting this statement in here without concrete WOWY evidence, but Huska moved Mangiapane to Janko and Carroll’s line in the third period. His zone starts went way up (+50% OZS second to third) and his corsi went down (-43.33 CF% third to second). Not a great game for the Flames’ top centre prospect, who looked very slow late in the game, perhaps battling fatigue. First line usage in three games spread across four days will drain anyone.
• To reiterate what I’ve been saying in the past two fancystats posts, Tkachuk and Carroll really need to stop taking dumb, dumb penalties. They cut down on some of the nonsense yesterday, but they still produced way more nonsense than anyone else on the team. I feel we didn’t get a fair viewing of the first line thanks to at least one of its members being in the penalty box every other shift.
• The second line was given the lofty assignments, but it seemed like Huska was rewarding them for good work in the previous game. They produced three of the goals, and have generally been a force all tournament long.
• The third line got bogged down in their defensive assignments,
  except for Dillon Dube, who has been my favourite to watch all
  tournament. I wasn’t excited for him when he was first picked, but his
  hockey smarts have really been on display in this tournament. Huska clearly trusts him, giving him more PK and PP time than either of his linemates. He’s very, very promising.
• The fourth line was way below even the minimum of minimums. Mathieu Sevigny and Justin Doucet were swapped in for Hunter Smith and Brayden Burke, and they were just not great. They were big, but not great. The big issue for me was Mikkel Aagaard, who looked absolutely lost out there last night.
• For the rest of the debutants, their results were mixed. Aaron Hyman was mostly inoffensive, save for the second period where he was aboslutely shelled. Riley Bruce was more of the same, but he seemed really dependent on Kylington.
• Let’s get to special teams, which really saved the Flames’ butts in this game. I tracked PP/PKs individually (plenty of opportunity for that), so make sure to check out those notes under the 5v4 and 4v5 tabs.
• The powerplay finally scored, after some lacking performances in their previous two games. Really, it was bound to go their way after a while.
• The penalty kill had a field day with the Canucks’ miserable powerplay. Even with four consecutive penalties, they got better with time. On the final PK in regulation, they were able to push play the other way, racking up more shot attempts than the Canucks did in the two minutes. In around 14 minutes of advantage time, the Canucks only managed 15 shot attempts. That’s the same as Riley Bruce was on the ice for, who probably played fewer than 14 minutes (the guy disappeared in the third period when the penalties started picking up. He literally was not on the ice for any events for or against the Flames).

Star of the game:

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