Statistical Summarization — CGY v MTL

Sometimes when you sneak out an OT point it feels good, like you’ve stolen something you don’t deserve. This game felt like that as the Flames hardly pushed play themselves and were lucky enough to have some offensive tools going to get a point in the very tight Pacific division race. Today, in our review, we are going to focus on the specificity of 5v5 play from last night, as it removes PP and PK stats from the equation to really put all players on a “level” field for comparison’s sake.

Corsi King – The phrase “Hey, do those Corsi’s” applied to less than half the team. Another strong possession game for the Flames 4th line of Micheal Frolik (65.38%), Sam Bennett (59.36%), and Tobias Reider (55.17%). Their strong play was recognised and, at 5v5, they were utilized as the 3rd line. Unfortunately, plenty of others faltered.

Corsi Clown – Lots of people are high on him right now, but he’s had some very (and I mean VERY) not good possession games lately, Dillon Dube didn’t have a good showing again. The Lucic (29.63%) – Ryan (21.88%) – Dube line seems to play as either hit or miss each game. Some consistency from them would go a long way to re-establishing my confidence in this squad.

Taken by Chance – TJ Brodie came out tonight and had 14 chances go towards the net, with only 9 coming back his way and 7 of them qualifying in the High Danger category. Fun Fact of last night’s game? Backlund and Monahan didn’t let a high danger chance against while they were out.

xGF% – The leader of this category is typically directly tied to the Corsi King so instead I’ll highlight someone who normally doesn’t have this high of a score. Mikael Backlund, at 63.45%, had one of his better games since Ward switched him to the wing. Having no chances against helps boost your xGF%, and he and Monahan defended well vs. a hungry Montreal Canadiens team.

Game Flow – 

Calgary tried to keep it steady out of the gate, but Montreal came on too strong. After they took control the Flames provided no real possession pushback. All-in-all the team should try to forget everything they did at 5v5 in this game and try to remember the loss against the Penguins. Hopefully they get back to that style of hockey.

Game Score – Not mentioned yet tonight, yet he had 2 points, is the leading Game Score leader (1.23) Elias Lindholm. His powerplay work kept the Flames in a game they should not have had any business in contending in, but that’s what makes hockey so damn fun. You can dominate and be the absolutely, far and away better team at 5v5 and still fall up short because of undisciplined penalties or unlucky bounces. Derek Ryan (-2.03) was the game’s bottom rung, for either side.

Heatmap –

The Flames put up chances in tight but didn’t really create any volume from one specific area away from the net. The Canadiens dialed in on some shots from the top right of the circle, more towards the slot, to try and create rebound chances and mad scrums around the net. They’re pesky and they deserved the 2nd point.

(All numbers compiled from NaturalStatTrick.com while GameScore comes from HockeyStatCards.com)

by Shane Stevenson