Quote:
Originally Posted by Azhouse
I was looking at HF as well. Some pretty funny stuff going on over there. They are convinced that a Colorado type collapse is inevitable for the Flames next year.
I think it is great that these young prospects are jumping on board. These kids (and their advisors) can see an organization that is headed in the right direction.
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The Colorado example has always been a bad one because they completely relied on goaltending. He won the vezina trophy for god's sake. If he can play that well again than any team is dangerous but their eggs are in one basket.
The Flames are still dead center with a .911 save percentage. The epitome of average goaltending. The only playoff teams behind Calgary in terms of goaltending are the Islanders, Canucks and Ducks.
Calgary is shooting percentage and shot blocks.
The shooting percentage thing: if you take out Calgary's top line they are actually under the NHL average in shooting percentage. Hudler has had a career of a higher than average shooting percentage so he's proven, and therefore sustainable for next year. Monahan has done it in both seasons in the NHL, but sample size lacks the foundation to suggest it's a given. Gaudreau is a rookie but certainly the type of player that you'd expect to have a high shooting percentage. Other than that others are high, but every team has high shooting percentage players or we wouldn't have an average.
So that handles PDO
The Corsi/Fenwick battle will be interesting because the Flames seem to play a style that breaks outside the conventional wisdom of how to win hockey games. Yielding the perimeter and racking up blocked shots is certainly giving up possession, but time will tell if its calculated and a new way to win, or if it's playing with fire (100 game sample) and heading to disaster.
I'm starting to think the Flames don't fit well in the advanced stats categories because of this, and they'll end up doing a version of it again next season.
Biggest fear for me isn't the style of play, but the gumption it takes to keep doing it. If they lose that effort it won't work.
I'm guessing it's a great way to stop gap a team until your young talent takes over.