Quote:
Originally Posted by dino7c
So the team has enough scoring?
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Of course this wasn't a great season in terms of scoring.
This is because guys like Hanifin, Tanev, Nesterov, Andersson were not very productive on the backend, and guys like Nordstrom and Ritchie had no business being in our top nine at any point this season.
This is also because Sean Monahan had a miserable season that has seen him demoted from first line center to third line left wing
This is also because Matthew Tkachuk had a miserable season that saw him post the by-far worst SH% of his career (7.9%... down from 13.9% over the three years prior).
It was definitely not a great year on the scoring front.
However - it's easier to score when you're in tied games or you have leads. The Flames goaltending:
1) Failed to keep games tied when they needed to
2) Failed to keep games within one goal when Calgary fell behind
These two factors allow opponents to simplify and go into defensive shells.
The fact of the matter is this:
The Flames' expected goals for was 135.05 and they scored 137 goals
The Flames' expected goals against was 124.10 and they allowed 148 goals.
If we got 24 more saves from our goalies (so league average goaltending), and still scored two fewer goals, we cruise to the playoffs with a +11 goal differential