Sunday, November 1, 2009

Avalanche v. Flames - Scoring Chances #13

TmPTimeNoteCOLOpponent
CGY119:45
8222326274146151722345v5
CGY119:06Goal10253741525434122024345v5
CGY118:52Goal91039404152311212528345v5
COL115:45
593940414457112125345v5
COL112:08Goal5182841444557112125345v5
COL15:25
10182841455246102333345v5
COL13:23Goal10253741525434112125345v5
CGY218:36
222527374154312202428345v5
CGY215:54
537394152
34121522344v5
CGY215:45
518264152
515172228344v5
CGY214:58
518264152
515172228344v5
CGY24:23
8222326274146121721345v5
CGY20:47
822273941
34122021344v5
COL315:19
582226414536122333345v5
COL314:46
582223264136122333345v5
COL314:30Goal8232641445237151722345v5
CGY311:46
5940414445312202428345v5
COL38:44
82227374154312202428345v5
CGY38:25
81026415254412212528345v5
CGY36:28
1822274154
512202128344v5
CGY32:52
91018254152311222528345v5
CGY32:17
9101825415245122021345v5
CGY32:08
9101825415245122021345v5


#PlayerEVPPSH
5B. CLARK13:54411:33002:4603
8W. WOLSKI17:37431:53001:3701
9M. DUCHENE13:37151:57000:1800
10K. CUMISKEY15:43261:39000:2800
18B. WILLSIE9:54230:10001:4303
22S. HANNAN22:01330:29002:4602
23M. HEJDUK17:11222:11001:1100
25C. STEWART13:18151:49000:0000
26P. STASTNY17:05332:11003:0002
27K. QUINCEY19:16131:58002:4602
28D. KOCI4:05200:00000:0000
37R. O'REILLY13:51221:49001:4101
39T. GALIARDI5:50110:00001:4502
40M. SVATOS10:42122:11000:0000
41C. ANDERSON50:008104:00006:0005
44R. WILSON12:24310:00000:0000
45C. DURNO12:01310:00000:0000
52A. FOOTE16:42360:10003:1403
54D. JONES14:49230:00000:4501


PeriodTotalsEVPP5v3 PPSH5v3 SH
1434300000000
2060200000400
3464500000100
4000000000000
Totals81581000000500

This game was very interesting because, in general, it wasn't a very exciting game to watch. Both teams played well defensively, especially Calgary, and the result was fewer chances than I've counted for any game to this point. For the Avalanche, 8 chances is a new mark of futility and being outchanced by nearly double is fantastically bad. It's the first time the Avalanche have won while being grossly outchanced in a while but if their play at EV (and on the PP) doesn't improve this fast start will be followed by a rather rapid decline. And yet Wojtek Wolski's winning goal in the third period was a thing of absolute beauty that makes your forget all about numbers. With another game on the + side of ledger under his belt I'm beginning to feel comfortable calling Wolski Colorado's best forward so far this season (Craig Anderson almost has best player of the entire season locked up after thirteen games). While Colorado's other big forwards have been getting beat up a bit by scoring chances Wolski has not and he's mixed in some simply outstanding plays to go along with his consistency. As an Oiler fan he reminds me a little bit of a more north-south version of Ales Hemsky. Of course, Hemsky took a major leap forward at age 22 and Wolski is now 23, but if Wolski can maintain his current pace it may not end up a bad comparison.

Dear Don Vanmassenhoven, Olli Jokinen made an egregious dive with about eight minutes to go in the game and you called a penalty. And it wasn't for diving. To think you could have had your praises sung loudly and proudly right here on this little piece of the internet. Instead, I heap shame upon you for encouraging the entirely too frequent practice of diving. Shame on you.

I noticed the broadcast crew a couple of times this game (I was watching the Avalanche feed). The first time was off a faceoff in the offensive zone. Matt Duchene won the faceoff and the play-by-play guy sounded just shocked, like it's never happened. When I looked up his faceoff percentage I see he's currently sitting at 39.9% over 168 faceoffs. While the play-by-play man probably shouldn't have sounded so shocked, if Duchene plans on being an NHL center over the long haul, that's an area that is going to need to improve.

The second time I noticed the commentators was when they mentioned Joe Sacco's start as an NHL coach. Apparently the only two guys who had a better start through twelve games are Marc Crawford (terrible) and Mario Tremblay (at least he was good for the Avalanche). That graph was supposed to show how great Sacco had done but to me it just screamed, "The first twelve games don't mean much at all!"

The power play was again very bad for the Avalanche. It's amazing because it had gone so well to start the year and it didn't look like a run of luck. The puck was moving quickly and some of the guys on the power play had been solid performers there in the past. Hopefully for the Avalanche John-Michael Liles is the one who makes that thing go, otherwise his return is going to be very underwhelming.

2 comments:

Kent W. said...

Looks like you and I were very close in scoring this game.

The Flames outchanced the AVs 2-1 and I still didn't think they played very well. And Calgary isn't exactly an elite team at this point.

Scott Reynolds said...

We were actually really close, with only five different chances between us, all for Calgary. I'll be doing a post looking at the differences in the near future but I was particularly encouraged by this game because your totals tend to be lower than mine. I think Calgary must do a pretty good job at limiting chances on both sides of the ice.

As for the Avs, they've had quite a few games where the other team has outchanced them badly and they've still won, usually on the back half of a back to back (here) or against really good teams (Chicago, Detroit). Against lesser lights, like the Oilers and Leafs, they actually put together good totals. At this point, on talent, they're probably a bubble team which means this streak of luck to start the year should serve them well.