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A few Calgary Flames notes on this off-day:
1) Remember when Andrew Mangiapane broke camp as a rotational forward seeing next to no ice time? (He played less than 10 minutes opening night.) Good times, good times.
With each passing day, it’s becoming apparent he should not only be a fixture in the top-9, but top-6.
At 5v5 Mangiapane is averaging .90 goals, 2.09 points, and 8.67 scoring chances per 60 minutes of play. All are 1st line rates and rank him comfortably in Calgary’s top-3. Beyond that, he’s drawn penalties at a higher clip than everybody on the roster – yes, even Matthew Tkachuk.
The individual outputs are fantastic, as are his on-ice numbers. He’ll make an impact on any line, however, the early returns suggest he fits best on the 2nd.
Together, Mangiapane, Tkachuk, and Mikael Backlund have controlled 58.54% of the attempts, 60.60% of the expected goals, and out-chanced opponents 50-26(!) through 80 minutes. 3M hasn’t posted numbers like that, nor MMA, nor 2M+Sam Bennett, nor any other combo. I’d like to see Mangiapane stick in the top-6 for a while. He deserves a good run.
2) Last season the Flames scored 2.87 times per 60 at 5v5, good for 5th in the NHL. They were full marks for it, ranking inside the top-7 in terms of shot attempt and scoring generation. Opportunities + talent = production, and we saw that on a consistent basis.
That hasn’t been the case in the early going. The Flames are scoring 2.19 times per 60, slotting them 23rd in the NHL. Their shot attempt and scoring chance numbers suggest they should be higher, but not at the heights of a season ago.
Perhaps nothing speaks more to the team’s dip in 5v5 scoring than the fact Derek Ryan, a 3rd liner who ranks 11th on the team in ice, trails only Tkachuk in points during that game state. Yes, you read that correctly.
For full disclosure, Elias Lindholm and Johnny Gaudreau are tied with Ryan. But they’re also superstars seeing a lot more opportunity. Level pegging with Ryan is nothing to write home about, and the likes of Sean Monahan and Mikael Backlund, who has found the scoresheet half as often, trailing the Doc is downright concerning.
While it’s nice having quality depth to pick up the slack, your best players need to be your best players more often than not. Until that happens, and they can out-score a 32-year-old journeyman playing in the bottom-6, the offense just isn’t going to be great.
3) Mark Jankowski is having a tough run. He isn’t generating a lot of opportunities and when he does get them, nothing will go. At all. He is playing well defensively, though. The Flames are giving up fewer shot attempts and scoring chances with Jankowski on the ice than any other player. He’s obviously not facing stiff competition but that’s encouraging to see. If he could get *any* luck at either end of the rink – he has the worst on-ice shooting percentage and save percentage on the roster – we’d be talking about him having a good year on the 4th line rather than counting down his days as a member of the Flames.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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