The Calgary Flames have completed seven games of the 2019-20 regular season calendar. They’re 8.5% of the way through their season, and so we continue the fine tradition of examining their performances in bite-sized seven game morsels. In the first seven games of this season, they’ve gone 3-3-1.
Underlying numbers via Natural Stat Trick.

Game by game

(Percentage stats in this table are 5v5.)
Date
Opponent
Result
CF%
SC%
HDSC%
PP
PK
Oct. 3
Avalanche (@)
5-3 L
54.0
48.8
52.9
2-for-4
4-for-6
Oct. 5
Canucks (vs)
3-0 W
48.7
52.9
57.1
0-for-4
6-for-6
Oct. 8
Kings (vs)
4-3 OTL
49.0
45.3
40.0
0-for-2
1-for-2
Oct. 10
Stars (@)
3-2 SOW
44.1
44.0
46.7
1-for-2
3-for-4
Oct. 12
Golden Knights (@)
6-2 L
53.6
40.0
50.0
0-for-4
3-for-3
Oct. 13
Sharks (@)
3-1 L
57.3
57.7
60.0
0-for-4
2-for-2
Oct. 15
Flyers (vs)
3-1 W
61.8
64.3
28.6
0-for-2
4-for-4
The Flames have three games at home (going 2-0-1) and four on the road (1-3-0).

Team stats

The Flames have a 3-3-1 record through their first seven games, the standings equivalent of a shrug. They have a .500 points percentage and haven’t really blown the doors down in any of their games to date.
  • Their goals for per game is 2.43. They’re 22nd overall in the NHL, and 10th in the Western Conference.
  • Their goals against per game is 3.00. They’re tied for 13th in the NHL, and seventh in the Western Conference.
  • Their goal differential is -3. That puts them 21st in the NHL, and 10th in the Western Conference.
  • Their power play is at 13.6%. It’s 24th in the NHL, and 11th in the Western Conference.
  • Their penalty kill is at 85.2%. It’s eighth in the NHL, and sixth in the Western Conference.
  • They’ve taken 11.4 penalty minutes per game. That’s third in the NHL, and in the Western Conference.
  • Their 5v5 CF/60 is 59.41. It’s the eighth highest in the NHL, and third among Western Conference teams.
  • Their 5v5 CA/60 is 54.14. It’s the 11th lowest in the NHL, and third lowest among Western Conference teams.
  • Their 5v5 CF is 52.3%. It’s the eighth highest in the NHL, and second among Western Conference teams.
  • Their 5v5 shooting percentage is 6.32%. It’s 28th in the NHL.
  • Their 5v5 save percentage is 90.26%. It’s tied for 22nd in the NHL.
  • Their PDO is 0.966. It’s 26th in the NHL.
So how are things looking so far? In short, the Flames have been okay with occasional flashes of goodness.
At five on five, the Flames look good in the offensive zone but can’t bury their chances. They’re a bit clunky in their own end, prone to occasional gaffes and turnovers in their own end. They haven’t really played a consistent 60 minute game, they’re not great at face-offs, and their adherence to a five-man puck movement system has been a little bit iffy thus far.
Their special teams are a bit night and day. Their power play has been good at generating shots but not great at generating chances or high danger chances (or burying those chances). Their penalty kill has been pretty effective at shot and chance suppression.

Player stats

First, the forwards (all situations, ordered by ice time).
Game scores: 0.950 and above is considered great; 0.450-0.950 good; 0.150-0.450 fine; -0.150-0.150 bad; under -0.150 awful.
Player
TOI
Goals
Points
P/60
SH%
CF%
GF%
OZS%
Game score
Gaudreau
141:03
3
7
2.98
15.8
57.7
75.0
62.4
1.059
Lindholm
140:52
4
5
2.13
19.0
53.1
58.8
50.0
0.812
Monahan
133:24
2
4
1.80
8.3
56.9
71.4
61.3
0.747
Backlund
130:49
0
2
0.92
0.0
52.3
45.5
56.6
0.509
Tkachuk
119:58
2
6
3.00
12.5
62.0
60.0
67.8
0.943
Ryan
99:45
0
2
1.20
0.0
40.9
37.5
43.5
0.146
Frolik
88:25
1
1
0.68
16.7
47.8
25.0
52.0
0.216
Lucic
88:07
0
0
0.00
0.0
53.2
20.0
61.4
-0.056
Bennett
86:45
0
1
0.69
0.0
47.2
25.0
59.2
0.015
Mangiapane
79:01
1
1
0.76
9.1
55.6
55.6
46.3
0.358
Jankowski
62:16
0
0
0.0
0.0
37.8
0.0
27.7
0.099
Rieder
55:01
0
0
0.0
0.0
42.7
0.0
50.0
-0.032
Czarnik
17:52
0
0
0.0
0.0
57.1
0.0
69.2
0.192
The Flames’ definitive top five forwards so far have been Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Elias Lindholm, Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund. By far. Beyond them, Andrew Mangiapane and Michael Frolik have been alright. It thins out considerably behind that five-to-seven forwards, with Milan Lucic, Sam Bennett and Mark Jankowski really struggling at times.
The big challenge going forward will be trying to get something consistently solid out of their bottom six group.
The Flames’ most common line combinations at 5v5 have been:
Gaudreau
Monahan
Lindholm
Tkachuk
Backlund
Mangiapane
Tkachuk
Backlund
Frolik
A low-key story line from the first seven games to keep an eye on? Mangiapane, top six forward.
Now, the defence (all situations, ordered by ice time):
Player
TOI
Goals
Points
P/60
SH%
CF%
GF%
OZFO%
Game score
Giordano
170:25
1
4
1.41
5.0
48.4
57.1
48.4
0.943
Hamonic
148:16
0
0
0.00
0.0
39.4
25.0
36.6
0.132
Hanifin
147:07
2
2
0.82
15.4
47.1
27.3
46.4
0.375
Brodie
142:27
0
2
0.84
0.0
51.7
62.5
52.9
0.404
Andersson
127:12
1
2
0.94
7.1
56.1
44.4
60.9
0.521
Kylington
63:33
0
0
0.00
0.0
55.0
40.0
68.1
0.190
Stone
27:27
0
0
0.00
0.0
40.5
33.3
46.7
-0.175
As with the forwards, there some disparities here. Mark Giordano continues his Norris-calibre play. TJ Brodie and Rasmus Andersson have been quite good. And then it thins out – though Travis Hamonic’s low game score is a product of him playing a more defensive-oriented role.
It’s worth noting that Michael Stone’s outings were (a) both with Brodie and (b) both on the road, so we have yet to see how that pairing can fare when they’re sheltered a bit in terms of match-ups.
And finally, goalies (all situations):
Player
TOI
SV%
ldSV%
mdSV%
hdSV%
Game score
Rittich
364:22
.912
.960
.922
.778
0.808
Talbot
57:01
.850
1.000
.800
.333
-0.550
Small sample sizes and clunky defensive play makes this comparison a bit noisy, but so far Rittich has been very solid.