Calgary Puck

The Flames need to score more goals.

That statement won’t come as a shock to anyone.

When Bob McKenzie sat Brad Treliving and the other GMs down in Penticton before last season, one of his standard questions going in the campaign was what kept each manager up at night.

Treliving didn’t pause a moment before suggesting goal scoring was his biggest fear. Where would they come from? Would they score enough?

He was right. They didn’t score enough, and when they did it was concentrated on too few players. Injuries finally crumbled the foundation sending the team from a playoff club in late February to a meek squad playing out the squad until the end.

It wasn’t pretty. – Full Article –

Tyler Parsons. The Calgary Flames top prospect according to NHL.com. A young goalie with noticeable talent and vast potential, made what might be his last appearance for the Kansas City Mavericks on Tuesday night.

“I kinda knew in the back of my mind that I was going to go back up to Stockton on Wednesday so I wanted to end here on a good note.”

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Sometimes too much can be made of splits.

We heard ad naseum about how the Flames couldn’t win in Anaheim, it was an odd nuance, nothing more in the broad scheme of things.

This season the Oilers are ranked number one on the road in the penalty kill, but are so dreadful at home killing penalties that the club is ranked 31st when you look at all their games when down a man, as they’re literally giving up a goal 50% of the time at the new rink sinking their overall rate.

The Flames are road warriors but terrible on home ice, the story of the week and I guess the season.

But how do the underlying numbers look? – Full Article –

The halfway point of a season is pretty darn good time to have a healthy look at things both good and bad on a hockey club.

The sample size is approaching somewhat trustworthy levels, and the midpoint of anything is certainly as good a time as any to hit the refresh button on things hurting a hockey club.

It won’t come as a surprise to any one that the Calgary Flames have struggled on the powerplay this season, but what do the numbers say when you drill down into situations, timelines and trends?
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Thirty one games into a National Hockey League season and the Flames are out of a playoff position, sitting tied for 9th in the West, just short of a wild card position.

So why, then, does it feel like this team is about to go on a streak and grab hold of their season?

Recent times show the Flames running along at a 4-4-2 record in their last ten, so it’s not recent play that has the spidey sense feeling good things, though points in their last four with unbelievable travel is certainly a good sign.

On the ice the team has flipped things up side down somewhat. The top line has gone ice cold, but the third line has found their way and are chipping in almost nightly. On the blueline the second pairing of TJ Brodie and Travis Hamonic seem to have figured it out and have posted some of their best results of the season of late.

The team just “feels” better.

But what do the underlying numbers say?

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