Shades of Hasek: G14, Flames @ Blues Post-Game
by R O on Nov 6, 2009 9:24 AM PST
31 comments
Dominik Hasek had an unparalleled career in the NHL. In goal for a Sabres team that was regularly outplayed and outclassed, he backstopped them to a conference title and, but for the errant skate of one Brett Hull, a good chance at the Stanley. Hampered by injuries in his later years, Hasek nonetheless had some success in Detroit. Some say he was the best player ever to tend the nets.
So it was nice of Hasek to come back to the NHL for a couple games this week, and steal four points for the Flames.
Breakdown:
First
EV Shots On Goal: 6-4
EV Shots Toward Net: 10-14
EV Faceoff Starts: 4-3
Second
EV Shots On Goal: 4-10
EV Shots Toward Net: 9-17
EV Faceoff Starts: 7-7
Third
EV Shots On Goal: 9-8
EV Shots Toward Net: 12-13
EV Faceoff Starts: 9-4
OT
EV Shots On Goal: 3-0
EV Shots Toward Net: 4-1
EV Faceoff Starts: 2-1
Overall
EV Shots On Goal: 22-22
EV Shots Toward Net: 35-45
EV Faceoff Starts: 22-15
Don't get me wrong - I'm (hopefully) not prone to hyperbole. I don't think McE and Kipper are Hasek clones (although Kipper had a couple seasons in there to make us believe), and I know that every goalie gets hot, and blah blah blah. But goaltending has been a weakness of the Flames for almost two seasons now, and at this critical juncture of the season when puck possession has been in scarcity, it was nice for our goaltenders to come through the way they did.
It won't last though.
Last night's effort gets an A - for anemic. Most of us were not able this game, but the radio broadcast gave the general sense that St. Louis carried the play. For those of us who were able to watch, that was confirmed. St. Louis has been ok at EV but a touch snake-bit recently, while Calgary has shifted into park. The combination was a bit bad.
Ranty aside: what the hell was up with not broadcasting this game? Yes, I know Sportsnet wanted to broadcast the World Series and I know TSN would rather show MTL and OTT games, but fuck. An away game, for a Canadian team, that only folks with Centre Ice or Gamecenter can watch, well that is just a fuckin' farce.
The shot totals say it all really - the shots on goal might have broken even at EV, but Calgary blocked a ton of shots. That tells me two things: the defense was good (or lucky) to get into shooting lanes, and St. Louis had the puck on their sticks a ton. I'm happy that the defensemen are generally earning their bucks, but if we keep playing in our zone then some of those asinine pre-season predictions about the Flames' total lack of scoring might actually come true.
So, generally Kiprusoff was awesome and Jokinen was not (bad play after bad play). I didn't notice Iginla but he did have that sweet breakaway, and Robert says he had a nice off-the-boards-and-to-the-net move in the third period. The PP was limp, and definitely for want of trying - they were going for the cross-ice passes and the point shots, but not supporting those decisions by moving the PKers to find seams nor getting traffic to the net for tip-ins and rebounds. If you don't let the score color your perception, I think the only conclusion you can come to was that it wasn't a good night for the skaters.
They owe Kiprusoff a pack of smokes each. And while they're at it, McElhinney* a pint each for the night before
* I bet you he still gets carded at bars :-D
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What I’ve noticed about American broadcasters is that there very one sided to the team their covering I rarely hear Sportsnet or TSN be all in on the Canadian team’s maybe it’s just me but does anyone else get that feeling?
Where the Lead is never safe, Ahead or Behind.
I don’t know of it’s a Canadian-American thing. SNET-P and Altitude make me want to puke in my mouth. But last night’s broadcast was pretty good (I mean a little homerism isn’t too bad) and Loubardias is gold in giving opposition teams their due credit. TSN’s PBP guys are great, even though their color guys are a bit obnoxious in their delivery.
And none of these guys hold a candle to Jim Hughson when covering the Canucks. On national TV no less.
by R O on Nov 6, 2009 9:47 AM PST up reply actions
Just to add to this to: the big thing for me is that the broadcaster is accurately calling the game. The local guys that I hate (SNET-P, Altitude) are calling a completely different game than we’re watching, I mean if you listen to them then you’d think that the Canucks are dominant in each win and that the Avs positive thinking and energy is propelling them to shoot like Mario. What is that?
And Jim Hughson, while calls a generally good game, well… his man-love for Luongo borders on homoerotica.
by R O on Nov 6, 2009 9:56 AM PST up reply actions
If there is a reason why I could be accused of hating Luongo (which I don’t)…this in part explains it. I live in Vancouver….I have to put up with that ‘man-love for Luongo’ shit on a daily basis. That’s from more than just Hughson you know…it’s from every one of those ‘5th most obnoxious fans in sports’. I mean hell, Luongo is a great goalie, but he ain’t the greatest goalie to have ever played the game. Even CG seems to be damn-well drooling over him all the time as well, which I think is a bit …. well it’s unfair to say anything if he is not privy to the conversation.
But if you go on a long enough pro-Luongo tirade, I’m bound to try to push the pendulum back to reality. I mean hell, Raycroft is good in Vancouver.
Yeah, that was over the top, sure…in his defense, I don’t think St. Louis had scored a goal since coming back from Europe (or something like that!) and was desperate just to say “scores”…
It’s been John Kelly’s tagline forever. I’m sure he was using it when he did the Avalanche broadcasts back in the ’90s.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 6, 2009 3:17 PM PST up reply actions
Actually, I didn’t think the announcers were bad last night (other than insisting that Sex Panther and Iggy and Phaneuf are the top players for the Flames, more than once). Darren Pang is the color guy in St. Louis now (he was Phoenix the last couple of years) and he’s pretty balanced – he does focus on the home team, of course, but seems like he’s trying to teach a non-hockey audience much of the time and does a pretty good job overall i being balanced.
It’s all the new masks. (If anyone has an idea (link) where I can get a good look at the new lids of both goalies I would be interested)
Wasn’t that what Trever used to do? Change up his pads every time he was looking for a little extra boost in goal. Yeesh, some of those colours were awful. Anyway, it looks like Kipper and McL (guess I gotta start with Backelhinney…but that’s too long Clancy) went hand to the paint shop together and it worked….but I digress.
Great game for one player last night…
Last night: 1.000% ev sv%, Highlight reel: 5-2
Game stats Kipper: 8-3-1 – .907% (.923% ev)
.920 sv% +: 5 of 12
sv% >/= opp. sv%: 9 of 12
<27 s/a: 2 of 12
>30 s/a: 7 of 12
>33 s/a: 4 of 12
Highlight reel: 46 – 29
Just repeating what I wrote on the game thread, that I did see the game and I disagree that, other than a 10 minute stretch of the 2nd, St. Louis carried the play. Of course, I understand that that is 16% of the game, and I hate to see them outshot, but this was nothing like the Dallas game.
And the PP wasn’t awful either – they actually didn’t spend much time trying cross-ice passes, it was almost all ‘get the puck to the point and blast’. I’m not saying that’s my favorite PP, but the St. Louis goal and Phaneuf’s OT winner were both this type of goal, and Mason got lucky a few times that some of the PP shots earlier hit him through a crowd.
Jokinen
So, generally Kiprusoff was awesome and Jokinen was not (bad play after bad play). I didn’t notice Iginla but he did have that sweet breakaway,
I didn’t get to watch the game, but Peter Maher’s play-by-play led me to believe that the Iggy breakaway in question was the result of a top-notch stretch pass from Jokinen. Was this hyperbolic commentator syndrome or was it a bright patch in the Finn’s lackluster season? I know he has been anointed whipping boy by M&G, but it seems to me that the problems run much deeper than Jokinen.
It definitely was an excellent pass (perhaps a little slow getting there, but hey…it was on the mark). I’m probably a little easier on Jokinen than many on this board, but at the same time, one good pass does not make you an effective player.
personally, i thought jokinen probably had his best game of the season. there were still missed assignments, blown hits, errant passes, ill-advised trips across the blueline, banana peels and all of the regular wildcard shit, but also some positive signs.
by walkinvisible on Nov 6, 2009 2:15 PM PST up reply actions
fyi: apparently most blues games are 7pm CST starts but, according to the local media, the flames matchup last night was at 7:30 by request of the calgary flames. was the game not even PPV ? because if that’s the case, that’s actually ridiculous….
local st.louis, of course, cause that’s where i am.
by walkinvisible on Nov 6, 2009 2:13 PM PST up reply actions
Corsi
Ok, so I am trying to understand Sarich and Bouwmeester ending up -11 and -12 almost exclusively on the basis of blocked shots. Am I reading this right in that they each lost ten “points” because the Blues blocked a pile of shots when they were on the ice?
No, it’s because Calgary blocked a bunch of shots (10) when they were on the ice, which is why St. Louis had 11 and 12 more total attempts when they were on the ice at EV, even though the shots and missed shots were just about break even.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 6, 2009 3:33 PM PST up reply actions
Makes sense on one level, though I find it difficult to take a metric seriously when it implies that preventing a shot on net is bad.
by Resolute on Nov 7, 2009 6:50 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Sigh. It doesn’t imply in itself that blocking a shot is bad. Corsi is a proxy for zone time.
I have no idea why people can’t get their head around this stat. It’s really simple. Positive corsi = spending more time in the offensive zone. Negative corsi = spending lots of time in defensive zone. Is it the strange name? Let’s change the name to “shots at net”. Having more shots than the opposition at net has been correlated strongly with outscoring and outchancing, which should be fairly intuitive – spend more time in the offensive, get more chances, score more goals. Does that mean that blocking a shot in and of itself is bad? No. But if you’re spending the whole evening blocking shots, it probably means you’re spending it in your own end.
In defense of Resolute, and as someone who feels like I am just up to speed on Corsi in the last couple of months, I think part of the problem is our inherent tendancy to attribute stats to players like all other counting stats.
In other words – JBo is not a good player because he consistently has a large negative corsi @ -11 or so per game
VS
JBo is likely our most highly regarded ‘big minutes’ defenseman because he is taking on the toughest competition, behind inept defensive forwards (Iggy and Joker), and as a result is spending a large majority of his time starting in the d zone and trying to work his way out. This can be seen in his corsi numbers….where he is first choice for situations which likey result in more time playing in a defensive zone assignment.
I think this is when it’s important to look at corsi while also seeing raw +/-… or better yet zone start, GA/60, qualcomp, blocked shots for those more interested in the advanced stats.
I’ll say this about Jokinen: he can’t possibly be this bad. I think if the Flames get more PP time in the near future, his numbers will improve. Does that mean he’ll be value for contract? I doubt it.
They coulda kept Bert at a million-five for this sort of production. Or not traded for Jokinen at all, of course, but, yeah, at some point he’ll get some shots and a few pucks will go in. Still, he has two goals in his last 27 regular season games, and 4 in his last 33 overall games. When a guy getting his cheese is at 4 goals in roughly 40 percent of a full year, he’d better be a top-two defenceman, not a number one center who needs to out-score based on volume attempts. He’s not exactly Mr. Shutdown, so it isn’t like he makes up for it.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 6, 2009 3:37 PM PST up reply actions
What I am pissed about now and likely to get more and more the closer it gets to draft day, is the 1st rounder we gave up for Joke- inen. According to some, this is going to be the deepest draft since 2003. I really hope Sutter pulls something out of his arse. Our cupboards are bare enough as is.
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