Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
That's an NHL issue not a Flames issue though.
Did the five on five points for each team, ranking them in forwards in production to give an easy top three, six, nine etc.
Then I compared the Flames five on five production to the rest of the league's top three, next three etc in two ways.
Contenders - I picked the top five coming into the season, and then removed the Islanders as they've been junk with covid
The rest - the other 28 teams
Top 3
Calgary 43 points
Contenders 39.8 points
The Rest 37.4 points
Calgary in good shape with the top line (in this case its Gaudreau, Lindholm and Mangiapane)
Second Line (next 3)
Calgary 28 points
Contenders 27 points
The Rest 24.5 points
Calgary has a second three (2nd line) that's better than both contenders and the rest of the league (Tkachuk, Lucic, Dube)
Third Line (next 3)
Calgary 17 points
Contenders 18.0 points
The Rest 16.5 points
Third line ... still no problem, Calgary is only one point back of the contenders, and a half point up on the rest of the league (Coleman, Backlund, Monahan)
Fourth Line (next 3)
Calgary 9 points
Contenders 13.3 points
The Rest 10.5 points
Here's the issue ... forwards 10-12 are back of the rest of the league and the contenders. (Richardson, Lewis, Pitlick/Ruzicka)
So you're theory isn't all that sound to be honest, the Flames are a three line team with a hole at the end of the lineup, but they're no more a one line team than any of the contenders and actually look to have better top nine depth than most of the league when it comes to contributing.
Now clearly things will change. Mangiapane and Lucic on heaters, Monahan coming around, Coleman gets going.
But as it stands that's another whiff amigo.
|
1) Points are not goals.
2) Lines are not made of by sorting and parsing the scoring rate.
It would be far more valid that you would make up lines by ES TOI
Or even better the time that the line actual plays together.
link
Try and find another team that is so dependent on one line. There is no other team that is even close in the 25% of ice time allocated to 3 players as a unit.
The Flames have 1 line and whatever line Mangiapane is playing is the second line however limited his line-mates are.
It is not a big leap to look at the Flames from the opposition POV and figure out that if you focus on stopping line # 1 that you have greatly improved your chances of winning.
11 games in the west and 2 wins in regulation.