The streak is dead, long live the streak.
The Calgary Flames won four games in a row last week, a streak snapped by the Dallas Stars on Thursday night despite the Flames playing quite well and putting a lot of pucks on net.
It was also the first loss in six games this season for the Flames while head coach Ryan Huska was behind the bench with his red and black striped tie. (Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson wrote a fun piece earlier this week about Huska’s lucky tie.)
Does what tie Huska wear while he coaches the Flames impact their on-ice performance? Probably not, no. Have we seen some interesting patterns of usage and results for the Flames while Huska has donned his 14 different ties this season? Definitely.
Let’s delve into what the data showed us about Huska’s fashion choices and the Flames’ results. Friends, here are tie analytics.
Ryan Huska’s ties, a summary
Tie | Description | Games | First Game | Last Game | Record |
Black, no pattern | 19 (10 home, 9 away) | Oct. 13 at EDM | Mar. 14 vs. COL | 8-5-6 (.579 pts%) | |
Paisley pattern | 8 (6 home, 2 away) | Oct. 9 at VAN | Jan. 23 vs. BUF | 4-4-0 (.500 pts%) | |
Tan with blue stripes | 7 (4 home, 3 away) | Oct. 22 vs. PIT | Mar. 1 at FLA | 4-3-0 (.571 pts%) | |
Red and black stripes | 6 (3 home, 3 away) | Oct. 12 vs. PHI | Mar. 27 vs. DAL | 5-1-0 (.833 pts%) | |
Charcoal with white striping | 5 (1 home, 4 away) | Nov. 11 vs. LAK | Feb. 27 at TBL | 4-1-0 (.800 pts%) | |
Blue, grey, white patterned lines | 5 (2 home, 3 away) | Nov. 3 vs. EDM | Feb. 2 at SEA | 2-3-0 (.400 pts%) | |
Red, no pattern | 5 (2 home, 3 away) | Oct. 30 at UHC | Mar. 6 at DAL | 0-2-3 (.300 pts%) | |
Red with white honeycomb pattern | 5 (5 home, 0 away) | Jan. 4 vs. NSH | Mar. 12 vs. VAN | 2-2-1 (.500 pts%) | |
Blue with white dots | 4 (0 home, 4 away) | Oct. 19 at SEA | Mar. 17 at TOR | 1-2-1 (.375 pts%) | |
Burgundy with white dashes | 3 (0 home, 3 away) | Nov. 5 at MTL | Nov. 30 at PIT | 1-2-0 (.333 pts%) | |
Blue/grey tie with black and white striping | 1 (0 home, 1 away) | Oct. 28 at VGK | Oct. 28 at VGK | 0-1-0 (.000 pts%) | |
Purple tie with white stripes | 1 (1 home, 0 away) | Nov. 19 vs. NYI | Nov. 19 vs. NYI | 1-0-0 (1.000 pts%) | |
White, blue and purple box pattern | 1 (1 home, 0 away) | Mar. 8 vs. MTL | Nov. 8 vs. MTL | 1-0-0 (1.000 pts%) | |
Hockey Fights Cancer pattern | 1 (1 home, 0 away) | Nov. 21 vs. NYR | Nov. 21 vs. NYR | 1-0-0 (1.000 pts%) |
What the data tells us
Barn Burner‘s Ryan Pinder was initially convinced that Huska’s sweater vests were more prominent this season than they were; he’s only worn them three times this season, and the Flames are 1-2-0 when he does so. (He’s 1-1-0 with his black sweater vest and 0-1-0 with his grey variant.)
There are some obvious tie groupings this season, and we’ll call them “Huska’s home ties,” “Huska’s road ties,” and “Huska’s flex ties.” There are a handful of ties with primarily home usage, another handful of ties he seems to like to bring on the road, and then a few ties he uses in both situations. The plain black tie has been prominent all season, and it’s one of the few ties he’s worn for consecutive games on a few occasions. (We’re not exactly fashion experts here, but it’s a tie that goes with basically any suit.)
We wish we had more photos of the charcoal tie, because it’s a really fun design. It takes a fairly basic set-up – a dark grey tie with some white striping – and accents it with diagonal dark blue striping that gives it a different background here and there. (This Flames TV video of a post-game presser shows sort of what we mean.) It sort of ends up being two ties in one, except with a continuous striping pattern.
As we noted: Huska’s ties (probably) have no bearing on the Flames’ on-ice performance. It’s all probably a coincidence.
But if you’re the superstitious type, you’re probably hoping for a steady dose of the black tie, the red and black striped tie, and the charcoal tie with white stripes from here on out. Just in case.
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