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When looking at an individual player's production, it's always good to see how a head coach deploys said player. Things like quality of linemates, offensive zone starts, and quality of competition faced can go a long way in determining how much a player produces, or prevents.
Considering there isn't much else to talk about right now, I decided to look at the offensive zone start percentages from last season to see how Bob Hartley liked to deploy his players.
I put all the data in graph form for viewing purposes, so let's take a look.
Quick note: this graph shows the percentage of shifts a player started in the offensive zone.
When looking at the Calgary Flames offensive zone starts leaders, there isn't really anything surprising.
Brian McGrattan was spoon fed offensive zone starts because he's a bad hockey player and Hartley wanted him as far away from the Flames zone as he possibly could be.
Derek Smith was also protected and given easy minutes because he's a replacement level defenseman, if that.
With Glencross, Baerstchi and Brodie, they're mainly given a lot of offensive zone starts because they're some of the most dynamic offensive players the Flames have. If you want to score, you have to put your offensive players in offensive situations.
With that in mind, Baertschi and Brodie were also likely being protected a little bit as Hartley would want his young players, Baertschi in particular, to be eased into the league
Now onto least offensive zone starts.
After making this graph, I'm wondering if Roman Horak knows what an offensive zone start is. Horak started barely over 39% of his shifts in the offensive zone, which was a couple percent less than Mark Giordano, who also barely started shifts in the offensive zone.
It's clear that Hartley either a) thinks Horak has no offensive ability or; b) appreciates the work he can do on the defensive side of things. I'm going with the latter.
Moving along you see some of the Flames better and more responsible defensive players in Matt Stajan, Lee Stempniak and Cory Sarich starting very few of their shifts in the offensive zone.
It'll be interesting to see if Hartley deploys his players any differently this year than last. In the cases of Giordano and Stajan, in particular, I wouldn't bet on it.
**
Aaron Ekblad, anyone?
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My take on T.J. Brodie's contract extension with the Flames.
Who will be the Flames starting goaltender this season?
Calgary Flames sign college free agent Josh Jooris.
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