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1) The Calgary Flames are really good at drawing penalties. They've gone to the power play 70 times in 16 games, which ties them for 3rd most in the NHL. This is hardly surprising. The Flames drew a ton last year and added James Neal to a team that already featured elite drawers in Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau.
What's surprising is, beyond the latter, it hasn't been the usual cast of characters contributing to the high numbers. Tkachuk and Neal have combined to draw just five while taking eight of their own. It's a lot of new blood making the difference.
Rasmus Andersson has drawn six calls and taken none. Only one defender has drawn more (Dion Phaneuf, believe it or not) and Andersson's +6 differential is three better than any other.
Speedster Dillon Dube is yet to make a big impact on the scoresheet but he's doing other things to contribute (such as drawing penalties). He has a +5 differential through just 14 games.
Drawing penalties is an extremely underrated skill. If you draw more than you take, it goes a long way towards winning the special teams battle. On many nights an extra goal can be the difference between getting points or leaving empty-handed.
That the Flames have injected new blood capable of drawing calls *and* staying out of the box (Andersson has 4PIMs in 25 NHL games; Dube has 2PIMs in 20 pro games) bodes really well for their differential and, thus, ability to win games.
2) Shooting 20% helps, of course, but Elias Lindholm isn't just scoring more because of luck. He's generating more shots and chances than he has in the past.
In 2017-18, for example, he averaged 1.88 shots per game, 3.29 attempts, and 2.04 chances.
This season Lindholm is averaging 2.63 shots per game, 4.38 attempts, and 2.69 chances.
He isn't going to continue scoring at a 46 goal clip, however, there's plenty of reason to believe he can blow by his previous career high of 17.
3) Besides in back-to-back situations such as Saturday and Sunday vs LA/SJ, I'd like to see Bill Peters give the lion's share of starts to David Rittich. At least until he cools down or Mike Smith rights the ship. This Flames team looks legitimately good – they're in the top half of the league and trending upwards in most key 5v5 stats – and capable of seriously contending for a top-2 spot (aka home-ice) in the Pacific. They can't afford to have horrible goaltending, which is what Smith is providing, slow them down. Smith's numbers don't hold a candle to Rittich's and yet the former has 1.7x the ice.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey.
Recent posts:
Five observations from an undeserved loss in Anaheim
On the 2nd pairing, giving Rittich more work, and playing Czarnik
Predicting the Pacific Division standings
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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