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Calgary Flames

The NHL Elite and the surprising Flames

Published

5 years ago

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This article provoked me to a do a straight line stat review of elite players. Thanks to Justin for highlighting it.

The main question that jumped to mind after reviewing Team Corsi was the Anaheim Ducks, sitting dead last with a Corsi of -779 yet they made the playoffs. The explanation provided was the elite players they have in their roster off-set the lack of depth.

In reviewing the stat lines, elite performance was making the top five in each category. That should be a very safe cut-off and if anything most would probably want it broadened to include top ten but the gulf between 1st and 10th becomes quite wide. It should certainly suffice that the gap between 1st and 5th is narrow enough that all players are properly called "elite," regarding last season's performance in their respective categories.

How and why did I choose these stats? I simply went to NHL.com, hit the Stats button and individuals tab. From this a summary line includes all the usual fare, G / A / Pts / ( + / – ) / TOI etc. 

Sure enough my hypothesis was confirmed; the Ducks have 7 instances of players in the top 5 in 12 categories. Vancouver lead by miles with 10 instances of various players in the top 5 in the same categories. The Tampa Bay Lightning rounded out the top clubs with elite players with 5 instances.

But then I got a surprise, not something I was expecting at all. The Calgary Flames are actually the club with the third highest number of instances of players in the top 5 of 12 categories with 6 occurrences.

Jarome Iginla 3rd in Goals scored, 5th in Power Play Goals, Mark Giordano 3rd in blocked shots, Alex Tanguay 1st in shootout goals and 4th in shooting % and Jay Bouwmeester 2nd overall in Time on Ice. 

Here is the data drop and I have tidied it up by deleting the various sub-categories of each main stat.  

Points Player Team Pos GP P ESP P/G
1 Daniel Sedin VAN L 82 104 62 1.27
2 Martin St Louis TBL R 82 99 58 1.21
3 Corey Perry ANA R 82 98 62 1.2
4 Henrik Sedin VAN C 82 94 59 1.15
5 Steven Stamkos TBL C 82 91 55 1.11
Goals Player Team Pos GP G ESG G/G
1 Corey Perry ANA R 82 50 32 0.61
2 Steven Stamkos TBL C 82 45 28 0.55
3 Jarome Iginla CGY R 82 43 29 0.52
4 Daniel Sedin VAN L 82 41 23 0.5
5 Ryan Kesler VAN C 82 41 23 0.5
Assists Player Team Pos GP A ESA A/G
1 Henrik Sedin VAN C 82 75 48 0.91
2 Martin St Louis TBL R 82 68 31 0.83
3 Daniel Sedin VAN L 82 63 39 0.77
4 Ryan Getzlaf ANA C 67 57 37 0.85
5 Henrik Zetterberg DET L 80 56 35 0.7
Plus / Minus Player Team Pos GP +/-
1 Zdeno Chara BOS D 81 33
2 David Backes STL R 82 32
3 Kevin Bieksa VAN D 66 32
4 Toni Lydman ANA D 78 32
4 players tied with +30
Faceoffs Player Team Pos GP Tot FO%
1 David Steckel NJD C 75 820 62.3
2 Manny Malhotra VAN C 72 1261 61.7
3 Paul Gaustad BUF C 81 1158 59.8
4 Zenon Konopka NYI C 82 1075 57.7
5 Jarret Stoll LAK C 82 1310 57.5
Hits Player Team Pos GP Hits
1 Cal Clutterbuck MIN R 76 336
2 Tuomo Ruutu CAR C 82 309
3 Dustin Brown LAK R 82 300
4 Matt Martin NYI L 68 299
5 Troy Brouwer CHI R 79 262
Blocked Shots Player Team Pos GP BkS
1 Dan Girardi NYR D 80 236
2 Greg Zanon MIN D 82 212
3 Mark Giordano CGY D 82 193
4 Roman Hamrlik MTL D 79 192
5 Francois Beauchemin ANA D 81 182
Take Aways Player Team Pos GP TkA
1 Joe Thornton SJS C 80 114
2 Jonathan Toews CHI C 80 93
3 Dustin Byfuglien WPG D 81 85
4 Bryan Little WPG C 76 80
5 John Tavares NYI C 79 75
Shooting % Player Team Pos GP S G %
1 Sergei Kostitsyn NSH L 77 93 23 24.7
2 Sidney Crosby PIT C 41 161 32 19.9
3 Lauri Korpikoski PHX L 79 103 19 18.4
4 Alex Tanguay CGY L 79 120 22 18.3
5 David Jones COL R 77 153 27 17.6
Power Play Player Team Pos GP PPG
1 Daniel Sedin VAN L 82 18
2 Steven Stamkos TBL C 82 17
3 Teemu Selanne ANA R 73 16
4 Ryan Kesler VAN C 82 15
5 Corey Perry ANA R 82 14
5 Jarome Iginla CGY R 82 14
Time On Ice Player Team Pos GP TOI ES TOI/G TOI/G Shifts Sft/G
1 Duncan Keith CHI D 82 2,204:33 21:15 26:53 2,388 29.1
2 Jay Bouwmeester CGY D 82 2,130:56 19:51 25:59 2,554 31.1
3 Shea Weber NSH D 82 2,076:09 19:33 25:19 2,374 29
4 Zdeno Chara BOS D 81 2,060:13 19:28 25:26 2,371 29.3
5 Joe Corvo CAR D 82 2,031:50 18:03 24:46 2,404 29.3
Shootout Player Team Pos G Total: S S%
1 Alex Tanguay CGY L 10 16 62.5
2 Jarret Stoll LAK C 9 10 90
3 Radim Vrbata PHX R 7 11 63.6
4 Mike Ribeiro DAL C 6 10 60
7 players tied for 5th

All too often we focus on the Stajans and the Hagmans but it is worth being reminded that the Flames still have 4 elite players who rank in the top 5 in various categories. 

So if Anaheim compensates for its terrible Team Corsi with their elite players and can make the playoffs, why can the Flames not do the same with their considerably better Team Corsi and star players? It is worth noting that the Flames of last year, despite an absolutely horrific start in 2010 played a long period of sustained winning hockey in 2011.

If they had not stumbled so badly in 2010 with losses to the Oilers, the Panthers, the Blue Jackets, the Wild and so forth they would have slipped in. In fact if the Flames had managed to wrangle just 3 extra wins out of a plethora of terrible games from Oct to Dec they would have ended up with a 100 points and 4th place in the West. 

Coulda, woulda, shoulda's don't mean much but it should be perspective that this team's performance in 2011 was at the very least playoff worthy. It is also worth noting that the Flames do have several players that perform at the very top of basic statistical classifications in the NHL.

by M Smith

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