Quote:
Originally Posted by squiggs96
I would have gone with any of the following:
- Power play operating at 16%, with only STL and EDM worse
- Power play also giving up 7 short handed goals, tied for 11th worst
- Team not prepared to play when the opening puck dropped
- Undisciplined team having 11.12 penalty minutes per game, 2nd worst in the league
- Below 50% face off win percentage
Any of those were far bigger reasons why they missed the playoffs last year, with the power play being easily the biggest. In 2016-17 3M had 52 goals in 239 games. Last year they had 48 goals in 220 games. Their goals per game was actually higher last year compared to 2016-17.
Troy Brouwer was on the ice for almost 94 minutes of power play time. That's over 1.5 full games worth. He scored zero goals. He was the 8th most used forward on the power play, which included Versteeg who is mostly used as a defenceman on the PP. That is a far bigger reason why the Flames missed the playoffs than the team's number one checking line scoring 4 less goals than they did in the previous year. |
All factors for sure.
But most of your list is such a small differential (5% on powerplay when you only get an average of 2.5 a night for example), compared to your whole second line having an off season.