I wanted to try something different for this monthly recap as the wall of text was just growing and looked a little unreadable when I had it typed out. Instead, I've put the data on some charts and graphs so that you can see the month over month changes and hopefully, make it a little less text heavy and more readable. The charts and graphs can be found behind the "Spoiler" tags as I didn't want to slow this page to a crawl with picture loading.
(All October stats are from the AHL Daily Report for October 31, 2014. November stats are from the AHL Daily Report for November 30, 2014. December stats are from AHL Daily Report for December 31, 2014. January stats are from AHL Daily Report for Feb 1, 2015. February stats are from the AHL Daily Report for March 1, 2015)
Overall Standings and Record
When the Flames entered February, we were in the playoff spot (6th in the West) and only 4 points behind Utica for 1st in the North Division. We ended February out of a playoff spot (10th in the West) and 3rd in the North Division 11 behind Utica and 3 behind Hamilton.
Goals For And Goals Against
While the Flames were able to generate a little more offense to bring up the Goals For as well take a small jump in the standings for this category, they also allowed more goals and the Goals Against dropped both in number and standings.
Power Play and Penalty Kill
The Flames continue to be strong on the PP, especially on the road. Our defence are a big part of this as they have generated lots of shots from the point that are either tipped or go in. Cundari and Acolaste have been the biggest contributors to the PP this month.
Our penalty kill however, has not been so great and once again, we see a slide after a very strong November/December. It is still a huge improvement over the start of the year, but with undisciplined play leading to a number of penalties per game, the Flames give up too many chances on the PP.
PIM
The Flames continue to hold in the same place in the upper-middle of the pack for penalties.
Scoring Leaders
No surprises here as the usual suspects are all there. Shore continues to lead the team based on this points from San Antonio. Poirier is our goal leader and shooting % leader, although David Wolf is closing in on his shooting % totals.
Non Cumulative Scoring Leaders
As requested last month, here are the monthly leaders in most categories. Turner Elson had a terrific month posting 6G and 2A to be both the goal and points leader in addition to the SOG leader, while Wotherspoon had 6A to take the assists for the month. Baertschi was our PP specialist as he recorded 4 PPA.
Goaltending Stats
These are where the numbers aren't really the best indicators of the play. For February, Ortio's stats are highly inflated as he was injured just 7 minutes into the OKC game where he let in one goal on 5 shots. He finished that game with a 8.26 GAA and .800 SV%. On the flip side, Doug Carr has some relatively low numbers as both games he came in relief of Thiessen he played between 13-20 minutes and stopped all the shots.
Drury18 Player of the Month: Turner Elson. Really hard to pick anyone but him as he was the Flames best player consistently for almost 2 weeks. With 6G (including back to back 2G games), 2A and 30 SOG as well as a 3rd Star, Elson lead the offense and created a number of scoring chances. In the absence of Arnold, he has become the go-to guy for face offs. While maybe not the flashiest player on the ice, Elson is becoming a reliable and flexible player for the Flames that they can use in any situation.
Honourable Mentions: Mark Cundari, Sena Acolaste and Garnet Hathaway.
Cundari and Acolaste have suddenly emerged as both offensive defenceman as well as PP quarterbacks. Combining for 3G and 3A on the PP this month and 1G, 7A in 5 on 5 play, they continue to create offense and chances from the point.
Hathaway, while not always impressive on a score sheet (1G, 3A in February), he isn't afraid to eat pucks. Actually, he doesn't eat pucks so much as he savours them like a fine wine. Hathaway is a shot blocking machine. In the 2 game series against Oklahoma, he blocked shot after shot, 5 of them just in the first game. Speculation was that after the first game he would take a maintenance day due to the abuse he took but he came out the next night and was rewarded by his teammates with an empty net goal. He is very much like Lance Bouma on the NHL Flames, drops to block a puck and can take it on the next shift and create a scoring chance.
