Game 3 Stats Recap – Canucks vs. Flames: Welcome to the Sam Bennett Show

The Calgary Flames played a complete game to take a 2-1 series lead over the Vancouver Canucks. To top it off, 18-year old Sam Bennett was a beast (gifs below). First, the shot chart courtesy war-on-ice:

Player Stats

Once again let's take a look at player contribution numbers because they tell us exactly who was involved in generating shots and scoring chances. There are three types:

Shot Attempt Contribution (SA-Co): The total number of shot attempts a player contributes to, either as the shooter or the primary or secondary passer to set up the shot.

Shot on Goal Contribution (SOG-Co): The total number of shots on goal a player contributes to, either as the shooter or the primary passer.

Scoring Chance Contribution (SC-Co): The total number of scoring chances a player contributes to, either as the shooter who takes a shot from the home plate scoring chance area, or as the primary passer who sets up the shooter in the scoring chance area.

The graphs below rank all players for each contribution type (players who didn’t contribute are not included). Bars are colour-coded by team.

Did I mention Sam Bennett was a beast? For the Flames he contributed the most shot attempts, the most shots on goal (tied with Bollig of all people), and the most scoring chances (tied with Backlund). He was rewarded with his first NHL goal, which also happened to be a playoff game-winning game.

The amazing thing about Sam Bennett's 5v5 scoring chance contribution: he was the shooter in all 4 of them, and 3 were shots on goal.

Scoring Chance #1 – A nice give 'n go with Brodie.

#2 – Bennett cuts into the slot like he's back in junior.

…and 10 seconds after that Sam Bennett graces our lives with his first NHL career goal.

And last but not least, scoring chance #4:

Hard to see what happens from this angle and CBC mucks up their replay, but here's a still. The puck bounces off Bennett, and Lack somehow makes the stick save.

Other Notes

Brandon Bollig had solid contribution numbers in this game, notching a goal to boot. We don’t normally see this from Bollig, but it’s interesting because in Game 2 he had the highest shot attempt contribution per ice-time of anyone. It’s nice to see guys like him stepping up.

David Schlemko is coming into his own as a Calgary Flame. When he first joined the team his contribution numbers were low as far as Calgary Flames defensemen go. But he’s clearly getting comfortable with Hartley’s high wheeling style, contributing nicely so far in this series. And let’s not forget that since he joined the team in early March, Schlemko is the Flames’ best possession player at 53 percent. (Fun fact: this is actually not true. In this time frame Corey Potter has slightly better possession BUT Potter is almost exclusively deployed for offensive zone faceoffs. Possession and zone start data from war-on-ice.)

Daniel Sedin is near the tops in terms of shot attempt and shot on goal contribution, but it’s nice to see the Flames limit his ability to generate scoring chances.

This series is getting rough, which could favour Calgary’s size and discipline. The Flames had 33 hits to the Cancuks’ 18 (though keep in mind the NHL’s hit data, like most of their data, is unreliable). While hitting can indicate a lack of puck possession, Calgary was barely out-possessed and still did 65 percent of the hitting. In total 69 penalty minutes were handed out, including 5 fighting majors. If you’re wondering how an uneven number of fighting majors are handed out, ask the NHL (or Deryk Engelland for that matter).

Team Stats by Period

Player Contribution Table

Questions or comments about the stats I track? Let me know in the comments below!

by ‘C’ of Stats