Calgary Flames Penalty Kill Starting To Look Hopeful
By Ramina Shlah
The struggling Calgary Flames are second last in the NHL on the penalty kill. However, in their last few games, there’s a sense of optimism that comes on the PK.
It’s no secret that the Calgary Flames are one of the few teams who are struggling immensely with both of their special teams. It also doesn’t help that they’ve been shorthanded the most amount of times as well. On the year, their penalty kill is 76.8% which ranks at second last in that category.
However lately, they’ve been slightly improving (let’s not include the game against the Buffalo Sabres because I’d like to forget that game ever happened). Before the game against the New York Islanders on November 28th, the Flames were at 75.8%. And before the game against the Philadelphia Flyers on November 27th, they were at 75.3%. Let’s take it back just one more game, to November 25th against the Boston Bruins, and the Flames were at 74.1%. So as we can see, day by day, game by game, their penalty kill is improving.
The Flames have allowed the most amount of power play goals against with 22, however they have also been shorthanded the most amount of times at 95 times.
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Actually, since the injury to Johnny Gaudreau, the Flames have a 84.4% PK. Since his injury, they’ve been shorthanded the most in that time frame with 32 times. However, they do have two short-handed goals in that time frame and they now lead the league with five of them.
October vs November
In the month of November, the Calgary Flames have definitely improved on the PK. They’re at 80.8% on the month. If we compare that to their PK in October, it’s about an eight percent increase. If we compare this to last year, the Flames were dead last on the PK with 75.5%.
They may have also gotten a boost of confidence when they killed off all four penalties against the best PP team in the league, the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 23rd. Including that game, since then they have only allowed one goal on 18 power play attempts. That puts them at a 94.4% PK which puts them in seventh place in that time frame.
I put out an article talking about where the Flames would be in the standings if their special teams were just a little bit better. Warning: You might cry.
Related Story: Where The Flames Would Be If Special Teams Were Better
If you’d like, that article shows an analysis of a breakdown of each game to show how that game would have gone if special teams were slightly better. Basically to sum up, if the Flames had just slightly better special team numbers. Like, I’m talking about maybe five percent better in each category, they could be one of the leaders in the Pacific Division. If that doesn’t make you cry then you truly are heartless (I’m kidding). But this just goes to show how much special teams really do affect a team. Especially in one goal games. And especially if a team is having problems with scoring as it is.
Next: How The Flames Are Doing Without Johnny Gaudreau
However, like the title of this article, the Calgary Flames seem to be improving. Especially in the last few games. Again, we’re going to pretend that game against the Sabres never happened. But if the Flames can keep this up, they’ll be climbing their way up in the standings.