Beyond the Boxscore: Flames smother Flyers on their way to 2-1 victory

Taken By Chance – Once again Rasmus Andersson (70.65 SCF% // 69.50 HDCF%) and Kevin Bahl (73.78 per cent // 69.50 per cent) won the high danger chance battle – this game just a 2-1 advantage. I do not think it’s a stretch to say with the current record mixed with Andersson’s contract status he is a possible candidate to be traded. If he keeps up the play he’s had so far this season any team invested in advanced metrics will be quite interested. We already know when we watch him he looks the part of a top 4 defenceman, but this season he’s having a really good defensive bounce back compared to how last season ended

xG Breakdown –

xGF% – Yesterday I mentioned in this section that Jonathan Huberdeau (46.19 per cent) was the Flames best guy at producing offence since coming back from injury. He follows that up with a two-goal outing on the road while on the second half of a back-to-back. There has been clear tiers to the Flames forwards this season and how dangerous they look. At the top you have Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri (66.39 per cent) who have a pretty clear separation on the next group. Following them you have occasional bursts from Frost (59.36 per cent) and Farabee (57.60 per cent), but those have been more chances than actual goals. Following them there’s a large group that play okay but have not been able to produce with any level of consistency. Backlund (27.34 per cent), Coleman (27.34 per cent), Coronato (59.36 per cent), and Sharangovich (28.28 per cent). Everyone else falls under the category of present, but not scoring enough to be regularly accounted for. The entirety of the fourth line is there too as it is not a unit that will likely produce more than 10 goals this season amongst all of the rotating cast.

Goals need to matter too, a 2-1 victory is nice, but it does not change the fact something needs to change on this roster for the depth players to be able to contribute. This many professional NHL players can not all possibly be struggling to this level at the same time – it truly makes you start to look elsewhere for where the root of the problem really is.

Game Flow –

Game Score –

Shot Heatmap –

In The Crease – Dustin Wolf deserved this. I’ve seen a lot of metrics thrown out online that Wolf is amongst the lowest in goals saved above expected. If you don’t watch any Flames hockey that would lead you to believe he was struggling. That’s really not the case – he’s had bad nights for sure, but it’s hard to find success when so many mistakes happen defensively. The team finally buckles up for a night in front of Wolf, limits turnovers and penalties, and viola. Wolf almost survives the entire match with a shutout and two goals gets you to the win column. No matter how the boxscore statistics look for Wolf (I only envision them getting better as the year goes on) without him this team is truly the worst in the NHL. More performances like this one will mask that from reality, unless those that make decisions have accepted a few things already.

The Goals –

Flash’s 3 Stars –

1) Jonathan Huberdeau

2) Dustin Wolf

3) Matt Coronato

(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)