[united]

OUTSTANDING way to cap off the series by the Flames. As I said in the pre-game thread, I was looking for two things: First and most importantly, win the game in any manner possible. Second, achieve a score-adjusted expected goal share above 60% given the state of the Jets.

Not only did the Flames accomplish both, they passed with flying colours. A score-adjusted expected goals share of 70% is damn impressive.


On the series as a whole, going into game one I was looking for the Flames to control score-adjusted expected goals to the tune of 55-61%. However, given what happened to the Jets in Game 1 you would expect the Flames to exceed those expectations.

In that sense, the Flames finishing with 57% for the series is just okay on the surface, however I think the context of Game 2 is important. I am not advocating arbitrarily removing a poor game from evaluation as that is, of course, cherry picking statistics for a results-based purpose. However, I believe that the Flames subconsciously did not show up to work in Game 2 as they had the Jets' losing their best player and number one centre, and a top-six winger, in the back of their minds and thought they could cruise without working and were given a wake-up call to the tune of the complete rebound beat-downs we saw in Games 3 and 4.

Game 1 was rust for all teams, Game 2 the Flames put in a shocker, and Game 3 and 4 they separated themselves with their combination of superior skill and put in the work needed too.

Great job by the boys!