[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

The money graf from the second link, to my eyes:



Lateral movement, I believe, is the key. The Flames this year have excelled both at generating chances on the rush and at moving the puck quickly in the attacking zone.

As I've mentioned before, it's harder to defend against a five-man attack than a three-man attack. The Flames have (at the moment) four of the top 50 scoring defencemen in the NHL, and some combination of those four players has generally been on the ice for close to 50 minutes per game. When that happens, every skater represents an offensive threat that must be countered, and the defending team cannot cheat by keying on the most dangerous players and ignoring the plugs. The team takes advantage of this by frequent passes and rapid lateral puck movement, which (says Valiquette) contributes strongly to shot quality.

In the circumstances, it should not surprise anyone that they have a higher than average shooting percentage. Add to that the fact that they have a surprising amount of offensive talent now, thanks to the emergence of Monahan and Gaudreau.

I'd love to see that ‘next great leap in shot quality analysis’. And I think this year's Flames will be a textbook case, and the source of some excellent data that will help that next great leap to be made.

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

It's interesting because the two takeaways are the two things the Flames have been very successful at doing this year.[/LIST]The Flames have been a speedy team that generates off the rush, and are a team that tends to make a lot of those cross seam/cross ice passes that are a little more high risk/high reward.

I do feel like there are times where this team is trading off taking a shot, in order to make the extra cross ice pass for a better scoring chance.