Flames @ Predators Post-Game

Ok, I am smiling ear to ear over last night’s game. Seriously, what a string of good hockey can do for the worries. It was an incredible game, and I think it may have been the most complete game by the Flames in recent (or longer) memory.

Tally it up:
Shutout, 2 PP goals, Goal by a defender, 5 different scorers, 3 pts 1st line, 2 pts 2nd line, 3 pts utility forward, Outshot opponent 30-22, 4-4 PK, hell….we even won the fight.

Awesome…. and Dawesome.

This considering we had Sarich and Bourque, two top line players out with injuries really illustrates the depth we have as well. It is quite impressive actaully, that with some of the Lundmark bashing I was doing on his earlier flops, that we can pull a guy up from the AHL and he can play effectively, during sheltered times, on the top line.

I’m starting to look at this team as very nearly a complete team after these efforts. If we get a chance to see Bourque with a finally arrived Jokinen and Iggy and it works….do we need a better LW? I’m loving the Dawes-Lanks-Moss line and I think we should keep it. I’m loving that Boyd can float around and be effective anywhere. At this point, I’m even OK with McGratton being in and out of the line-up, as long as it’s out more than in.

We have tremendous depth on “D” and really would only seriously fear an injury to Kipper as a major disaster.

Speaking of the MAN:

Last games: 1.000% ev sv%, Highlight reel: 1-6

Game stats Kipper: 15-5-3 – .925%* (.942% ev)
.920 sv% +: 14 of 22
sv% >/= opp. sv%: 17 of 22
<27 s/a: 5 of 22
>30 s/a: 9 of 22
>33 s/a: 7 of 22

Highlight reel: 87 – 63

*Just a side note…it has taken Kipper exactly 5 games, 5GA and two shutouts to return his sv% to .925 (within .001 of the .926 he had) since the Flames pulled the cry-baby game and lost 7-1 to the Hawks.

and finally PS…

Can Ballard be suspended for swinging his stick baseball style and injuring his own goalie? You know if it was the other team’s goalie he would be…I say…send a message, it’s stupid, dangerous and childish to see defenders smashing their sticks on the net. 2 games. Call me a fanatical dictator if you will.

The basic phenomenon we are witnessing is a team that looks like it is starting to gel and become a formidable opponent.

Well, Bonesman, I’m not going to accuse you on not paying attention the last few years, but…the Flames have pulled this type of nice early-to-mid-season run for the last several seasons. They had a team best win streak under Playfair in November. They did something similar the next year under Keenan in December, including a 6-for-6 road trip. They were probably one of the best teams in the league from Dec-Feb in 08/09, a period in which I think they lost something like 5 games in regulation. Each year, all of it has collapsed in a heap come April.

Calgary’s had a real nice start to the season, but it’s going to take more than November of Iginla lighting it up and Kipper standing on his head to get me to start declaring the Flames a legitimately elite team. Because I’ve seen this act before. Nashville was the first game in a few weeks where I felt the team legitimately dominated the opponent and the result was never really in doubt.

As for corsi, it’s mostly a broad strokes stat the tends to be more meaningful over large samples rather than single games. It’s shown to be repeatable and therefore representative of a team’s strength over the long-run and it tends to correlate well with scoring chance differential at the individual player level. What it doesn’t necessarily do is tell you how good a player is after game “a” or “b”, especially for a guy like Bouwmeester who spends all his time take defensive zone face-offs against really good players – in that case, it just tells whether that player time in the offensive or defensive zone during the contest in question.

It’s a point of interest for some, but feel free to ignore it.