Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper
Goal differential naturally is a marker of success as wins and losses are defined by your ability to score more goals than you give up. But I don't take the goal differential stat as gospel because it can be swayed by blowout games and rough stretches.
For instance, the Flames were sitting at a goal differential that was in the single digits positive or negative for 90% of the season (last season as well), 9 games later, the Flames are a -33. The Flames were actually hanging pretty well with the better goal differential teams (Wild, Sharks, Kings, Ducks, Avs and etc) for much of this season until just recently.
I tend to believe that this team is more of a neutral goal differential team as evidenced by all of last season and 90% of this season rather than be swayed too much by the last 9 or so games where the back ups are playing, many regulars are MIA and the team is still reeling from shock.
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Yes, goal differential can be influenced by blowouts (in both directions), but over time those even out. And the Flames were hanging with the better teams for a long while, but even then their goal differential was the only negative one. For a time they were ahead of the Kings but they were something like -6 while the kings were plus 20 something. How did things turn out?