Calgary Flames Special Teams Need To Up Their Game
By Luke Ryan
The Calgary Flames turnaround of fortunes, with an eight game home winning streak has been remarkable, but they’re by no means a finished product.
As called out by Sportsnet’s Leah Hextall on Twitter, the Calgary Flames make for rather sad reading when assessing special teams:
Special teams are once again causing issues for CGY. Flames 0-2 on PP, while 1-3 on the PK. Both special teams are last in the league.
— Leah Hextall (@leahhextall) December 11, 2015
Considering some of the talent that makes up the power-play unit for the Calgary Flames, it is a little surprising. Given the offensive prowess of guys like Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett and T.J. Brodie – you’d expect that they’d be quite able to take advantage of the extra man on a more routine basis.
Per ESPN statistics, few other teams in the NHL create less powerplay opportunities than the Calgary Flames; and those that do seem to have a tendency to actually convert them regardless of the fact they get less. A 12% powerplay percentage is the result of this failure to get things set up and get chances on net.
It doesn’t get much better when you start looking at the penalty kill units. Again, more is expected of a stable core of defensemen and more than competent two-way forwards. The 70.3% percentage on the penalty-kill is particularly bad when looked at in comparison to fellow basement-dwellers in the standings – the Edmonton Oilers, by comparison, have a very competent 80.2% on the PK.
Does the blame lie with Calgary Flames head coach, Bob Hartley and his coaching staff or do you lay the blame with the players themselves?
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Last year’s penalty kill for the Calgary Flames was much closer to the aforementioned Oilers percentage; the drop in penalty kill form coming, despite shoring up the defense with astute summer signings such as Dougie Hamilton.
Likewise, 18.8% on the powerplay represented a much better performance from a very similar playing group.
It seems almost absurd that the same players, playing for the same coach, with a few exceptions could perform so differently between the two seasons.
Clearly, the special teams should remain a cause for concern. Whether by virtue of the luck associated to last season or by some change in the playing and coaching group, the Calgary Flames really need to get this fixed if they’re to climb any higher than their current lowly spot in the standings.
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How can the Calgary Flames improve their special teams’ fortunes? Let us know your ideas in the comments section below.