Originally Posted by TheScorpion
Time for some SHUTOUT FACTS:
It's been five this year through just 39 games. The Flames were shut out five times all of last year, which, considering how few games they lost, is kind of surprising. Five is a lot of shutouts.
The all-time record for most shutout losses in a Flames season is 10, set in 2002-03. In that season, the Flames went on a truly atrocious 1-10-0-1 stretch in November which saw them lose four games in shutout fashion and in which their only win came against the equally bad Blackhawks. No surprise -- the Flames had three coaches that year.
The 2000-01 Flames and 2001-02 Flames both lost eight games in shutout fashion. Three straight years of eight-or-more shutouts... rough. That's what losing Fleury does, I guess.
The 2013-14 team was also real bad. They had a stretch where they were shut out five times in seven games. They suffered eight shutouts that year.
The 2006-07 team managed to go the whole year without being shut out, which is pretty impressive. So did the 1989-90 and 1990-91 Flames. As is Flames custom over the last three decades, all three of these teams lost in the first round of the playoffs. (The 1983-84 and 1982-83 Flames teams also avoided being shut out, but made up for it by adhering to the team's custom for its first decade of existence, Smith gaffe aside: losing to the Oilers in the second round of the playoffs).
The 1988-89 Cup team was shut out twice, to Winnipeg and Edmonton. Both of these teams entered the NHL at the same time -- 1979, after the WHA merger. The two teams they shut out? Vancouver and Buffalo. Once again, both of these teams entered the NHL at the same time -- 1970, as expansion teams.
My personal favourite fact: none of Guy Charron's 13 games as coach in 1991-92 ever ended with a shutout score, but the two directly preceding his appointment as coach both did. Before being fired mid-season, Doug Risebrough lost 3-0 at home to Philadelphia and then, astoundingly, 11-0 to Vancouver. "Riser" never coached in the NHL again; the Vancouver loss still stands as the Flames' worst shutout defeat ever, and the seventh-largest in NHL history.
Finally, Jim Playfair remains the only full-time Flames coach to ever go a full tenure without suffering a shutout defeat. Indeed, Playfair has a perfect record of avoiding shutouts in his entire career as an NHL bench boss: 82 games coached, no shutouts.
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