Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimdon
When you've got corsi masters Nordstrom and Backlund driving those numbers and being some ( or the worst) of the least efficient offensive players in the entire league corsi can be a pretty misleading stat.
No doubt goaltending has been bad, but results are measured in wins and losses and nothing else.
It's great that the Flames are attacking 55% of the time but when that attack amounts to a toothless tiger its nothing to brag about.
Edit: goaltending has been poor, but a team that struggles to score more than 2 goals a game doesn't get to use that crutch.
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You're right that the offense has to lead to goals, but it's clear that it took a while for the coach and the players to adjust to each other when it comes to team offense because it was really bad during the period when Sutter first took over.
Leaving out the final 4 games vs Vancouver for obvious reasons and choosing April 6 as the turning point because Sportsnet listed that as the date that the Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk line were put together, from March 9 - April 5 the Flames played 14 games (5-9-0) versus the 12 games (7-5-0) from April 6 - May 12 (5v5 numbers and North Division Rank):
Corsi:
54.29% (3rd) -->
55.42% (1st)
Shots for per game:
23.4 -->
23.9
Shots against per game:
21.4 -->
18.6
Goals for per game:
1.71 -->
2.17
Expected goals for %:
53.9 (3rd) -->
59.8% (1st)
Shooting %:
7.34 (4th) -->
9.06% (4th)
Team Points %:
0.357 (7th) -->
0.583 (4th)
Powerplay
Overall:
18.3% -->
13.6%
G/GP:
0.57 -->
0.38
The Flames 5v5 play improved significantly over time including their offense. If they maintained the 2.17 5v5 Goals for per game played pace, they would have scored 121 goals and come in 6th in the league.
On the other hand, I think they should consider making some changes to improve the powerplay, personnel and also coaching. It's one area of the game that remained mediocre even when the rest of their game improved. Overall on the season they had the 21st most effective powerplay and gave up the 2nd most shorthanded goals (7).