[SuperMatt18]

Here’s the thing…hockey in the Salary Cap era is mostly random. The playoffs the last couple seasons are mostly proof of that, one bounce here or there changes everything.

Over the last three seasons the best teams in the league have a 54% expected goals for ratio, and the worst teams in the league have a 46% expected goals for ratio.

That’s a minimal difference in the big scheme of things…every hockey game is pretty much a toss up. Generally are you confident that something you expect to happen 54% of the time is going to happen?

You see that randomness in this playoffs so far. 5 series are tied 3-3. Florida won in 6 but Washington could have easily won that series in 5 if they didn’t blow late third period leads. STL vs Minnesota was a toss up but Minnesota got poor goaltending. Colorado-Nashville was the only definitive series and that’s probably a lot closer with Saros in net.

I’m serious when I say that Hockey games are mostly random and luck plays a huge factor. We’re a soft Markstrom goal and a Oettinger stick knob away from a much different discussion tonight.

Unfortunately for Flames fans the hockey gods have never seemed to shine favourably on us.