Flames/Devils Postgame

– Here are last night's corsi stats. Color me unimpressed with the new first line – $15M worth of forwards should be scoring AND driving possession. Ironically, Iginla, Cammalleri and Jokinen have 4 points combined in the last two games but NONE of them came while the trio was on the ice together. Here's the ES shooting stats from the last 4 games, with player number "99" at the bottom being Iginla+Jokinen. A cumulative +8 rating isn't terrible, but it sure as hell isn't blowing the roof off either. Yes, the Flames are on the road and they're injured, meaning sub-optimal use of Jokinen unit – but keep in mind the club gave up cap space, a first round pick and two roster players (one of which was very useful) for Olli Jokinen. That is a non-trivial package of assets and it worries me that the club is struggling to drive possession with him and Iginla on the ice together. 

– Calgary's special teams have been bad recently, especially the PK. I can't tell if that's solely because Kipper's previously astronomically high SH SV% is coming back down to earth or if the team is just playing poorly. It may be a little of both. Last night, the Flames surrendered 12 shots and at least half dozen glorious chances a man down and it was only posts and bounces that kept the puck out. This is an especially significant issue now since the club deleted a guy that draws more penalties than he takes(Lombardi) and added the reverse (Jokinen). Calgary is now -6 in terms of penalty differential BTW.

– I decided last night that David Van Der Gulik would be more useful to this team than Andre Roy. Roy played 5 minutes against the Devils, had a "fight" (has he won one this year? I dont think so), a minor penalty and zero shots on net. He seems like a really nice guy in interviews and such and he's better than Godard was, but…

– Would anyone be interested in a Dennis-like counting of scoring chances for/against type project for the Flames going forward? I've played with the idea because it seems like a potentially fruitful endeavour, but havn't committed to it because it would be a lot of work and I dont know if there's any demand for it.

by Kent Wilson