This is amazing. Thank you.

I was wondering why Langkow and Bourque were so underwater in BUF, but Iginla and Jokinen seemed to be doing well by corsi (even though I thought the former looked pretty good) – look no further than 18% offensive zone draws versus 66 and 60% for Iggy/Jokinen. Add those circumstances to all the PP time those two enjoyed and that’s probably why Jokinen looked better to so many people that night.

Here’s the scoring chance links for each game as well:

Sabres
Leafs

And finally…does McGrattan’s face above looked photoshopped to anyone else?

Nice work, Richard. I know from the early season face-off numbers that Iggy-Joker were starting in their own end quite a bit more often than they did in these two games, which is a big part of why the Corsi figures for the two of them were in the ditch. That, and a bit of ineptitude, of course. As for Bouwmeester, I should be able to post my 8 game review of his work with 12 and 21 later tonight, and the preliminary data certainly backs what you have here. He doesn’t get out there against many third lines.

The Kiprusoff watch is getting very rewarding at this point. He is slowly moving his way up to full-value for the team and (at this early juncture) without getting to far ahead of ourselves…amongst the early Vezina forerunners.

Kipper stands tied for 4th in the league in wins with 11 behind three leaders with 12. This often debated goalie stat looks more like Kipper’s right to stake a claim to than perhaps last year…but we can move on without the big ‘wins-for-goalies’ debate.

He is 6th in the league with a .923 sv % (5th if you discount Conklin who is a stellar-backup yet again.)

He has climbed to 14th in the league in GAA at 2.36 (12th weeding out back-ups)

He also has faced the 6th most SA while having the 8th most TOI at this juncture.

His EVSV% is 6th in the league at .941 (4th discounting low minutes guys again)

Lastly he is on pace to play 73 games. Some of these stats are good….some bad. The 30.94 shots against per game are less than I would have thought, by about 1.5, but still about 6 higher than originally promised. As we run closer to the end of the first quarter, let’s hope the kinks are finally being ironed out.

Ok…

Last two games: 1.000% ev sv%, Highlight reel: 12-6

Game stats Kipper: 11-3-2 – .923% (.941% ev)
.920 sv% +: 9 of 16
sv% >/= opp. sv%: 13 of 16
<27 s/a: 3 of 16
>30 s/a: 7 of 16
>33 s/a: 6 of 16

Highlight reel: 72 – 41

Let’s hope Kipper keeps it going and the others on the team catch up.

He’s from the Calgary area isn’t he?

Moscow, actually. Of course if I was an Edmontonian, that would be followed by “pretty much the same thing, isn’t it?”.

On a more serious point, I’m not sure Sarich will go anywhere this year unless the team struggles for an extended period. If you ask me about next year, that’s a different story, but for now, I’d suspect he stays where he is, and the Flames fill a spot on LW at the deadline with a pending FA from a team out of the playoff chase. Maybe Tanguay, maybe Ponikarovsky, but someone at that approximate pay level and ability level.

What’s interesting about the Langkow line getting absolutely thrown to the wolves is that it’s a reversal of what Sutter was doing earlier in the year. The results are slightly better in that Langkow et al. aren’t getting totally annihilated like Iginla/Jokinen were and Jarome’s scoring a bit more now that he’s facing a soft assignment, but it hasn’t decisively turned possession to the Flames favor.

The thing is, I think a tough minute line that can move the puck from defense to offense is there: play Jarome with Langkow/Bourque, combine Regehr and Bouwmeester behind them and then feed everyone else the fleshy underbelly. Jokinen remains sheltered and guys like Glencross, Boyd, Dawes and Moss could probably do some damage if Lankgow+Iginla move the puck forward consistently.

Either that, or Sutter should cobble together a line he can just feed to the wolves a la Bonk in Nashville. Conroy and Nystrom seem like candidates for that assignment, given the fact that they’re good in their own end but unlikely to do much (offense wise) with a favorable assignment. But that’s just me.