The morning after: Game five fancy stats recap, ft. Jonas Hiller

Okay, I think we all know how that last game went. There's no reason to do a fancy stats recap except to gawk at the numbers and ponder what deity is a Flames fan to grant them this win. Maybe it's Jonas Hiller? He's basically a god now, right? Just as Karri Ramo looked to be taking the starter's title, up stepped his Swiss counterpart.

Maybe they should do a 41-41 start-every-other-game split between the two. It couldn't hurt.

This post will have nothing but praise for Hiller. He deserves it. I don't think the rest of the Flames deserve condemnation because, well, nobody but the most die hard of fans would have put money on them to win.

They were not supposed to win this game.

Jonas Hiller did not care.

Here's the game's Corsi chart, courtesy of HockeyStats:

Hey! Look! It was even for like, three minutes! And then, uh, Jonas Hiller.

Are you ready to see a lot of red? Going deeper, with NaturalStatTrick:

Flames at Blackhawks - All Situations

• NINETY-SIX TO THIRTY-THREE
• You thought being outshot 50-18 was bad? The Blackhawks got NINETY-SIX shot attempts off. In ONE GAME. All hail Jonas Hiller. And the 30 shots the defence blocked. Kris Russell and Rafa Diaz had six blocked shots apiece. Good lord.
• But hey, the Flames were less of a trainwreck as the game went on! Not by much, but... they improved. A little. Although considering how they only got two shots on net in the first, I mean, it wasn't exactly asking for much.

Flames at Blackhawks - Even Strength

• So, the Blackhawks had seven powerplays, and that obviously played a role in this. Not a very big one, considering how they still thoroughly dominated, but, you know, a role.
• The one powerplay the Flames had was in the second period. For whatever reason, when you take that factor out, the Flames seemed to do better. They still had two Hawks powerplays to counter with then, but...
• Hey, how 'bout that overtime period? Yeah!!

Even Strength Corsi Data

• This is a judgement-free zone. Remember the colour coordination on these charts has to do with how relative the numbers are to one another. That's why it's not super red. Because that game was, well, it was an effort.
• Brian McGrattan is the bizarro standout here. He was the only Flame to achieve a corsi rating above 50%. He even led the Flames with three shots. All in 5:55 of ice time, by far the lowest on the Flames. Dang, what a performance.
• Look in the Rel columns. Damn. Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie. Wow. They were even on the lower end of the zone start spectrum. I mean, of course they were, they're by far the Flames' best D pairing. But holy crap, they're so good. Led the team in ice time, too: 27:04 for Brodie, 26:39 for Gio. And while it doesn't factor into this chart, Brodie played 6:44 on the penalty kill; Gio, 7:47. That's insanity. They are the best.
• As mentioned above, Russell and Diaz blocked six shots each, so once you take out the blocked shots, the chart is much kinder to them.
• Mikael Backlund, Jiri Hudler, and Paul Byron were entrusted with really low zone starts, and um, Byron is sneaky good? He kept getting sprung on breakaways, and he's fast and all, but he had the worst zone starts on the team and was one of the best players. Second in forward TOI too, with 19:40 (Backlund had 22:29). He wasn't even a full-time NHLer this time last year...
• Diaz got sheltered as best he could be. He also only played 10:52. Still wanna see more of him - he's barely had the chance to play, after all, and when he does draw in he gets paltry minutes.
• Ouch, Devin Setoguchi. In a game filled with poor percentages, he really stands out, and not in a good way at all.
• Okay that's it, we're done here. Like I said. Judgement-free zone. Good job good effort, shot blockers, Hiller, goal scorers. Thank you for a hilarious and oddly stressful game.

Player Spotlight - Jonas Hiller

Hiller rules. He stopped 49 of 50 shots. That's a .980 SV%. The best metric to measure a goalie is with their even strength save percentage. Hiller went 42 for 42 at even strength. His ESSV% was 1.000. Hiller is the greatest. All hail Hiller.

Player Spotlight - Devin Setoguchi

I know I said this was a judgement-free zone, but no, Setoguchi needs to be addressed. He didn't fare as poorly in the fenwick column, but the Flames really were blocking a lot of shots. Besides, Backlund has proven himself time and time again with this team. Curtis Glencross... eh. But that corsi ratio from Setoguchi? What happened there?

• So basically Setoguchi could only function when he was on the ice with Joe Colborne and Johnny Gaudreau. And the Kris Russell - Dennis Wideman pairing. That's where literally all of his attempts at positive possession came from.
• Everyone else was a disaster. He clearly got taken off the Jiri Hudler -  Sean Monahan line. He was the weak link in that line the previous night, too. While this definitely isn't a game to hold any standards to, maybe we'll see the lines shuffled a bit again? Who knows.

Hahaha what a game.