Quote:
Originally Posted by Aarongavey
Four of the top 10 teams according to that stat are
Edmonton - 3rd best team in the NHL
Ottawa - 8th best team in the NHL
Utah - 9th best team in the NHL
Columbus - 10th best team in the NHL
I am guessing it may not be the best stat to judge which teams are the best in the NHL. The Winnipeg Jets are as ####ty as the Flames according to that metric. The Flames were a better team than the Rangers last year according to that metric.
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The problem with that metric is that every game is still generally a toss up in the NHL. .
The best team is 57.0% (+0.78 XG per game) by xGF, the worst team is 42.3% (-0.94 XG per game) so slightly more than 50/50 odds and NHL xG difference is generally within 1 goal difference in most games.
Goaltending and finishing luck can easily make up any expected goal difference over the course of the season.
And really the Flames aren't that bad when looking at xG anyways - in all situations they sit at 51.0% which ranks 14th in the NHL, by points percentage they sit 10th right now. Pretty close to where their xG ranking is.