At this point in time there should be no more anxiety from fans when it comes to the expectations of the Calgary Flames. The team fought hard and eliminated the Vancouver Canucks in what was a well-deserved series.
What I like moving forward about this team and their upcoming playoff chances are that, similar to the beginning of the 2014-15 season, they are slated to be underdogs. For those who have been paying attention and supporting this team throughout the year they would have noticed that the Flames tend to play their best hockey when the world has counted them out.
I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t have great expectations for the next head to head battle between the Flames and the Ducks because lets be real, Anaheim is a playoff beauty.
That said, this (is) the Calgary Flames we are talking about and they seem to have the mentality and confidence that is required to surpass certain levels of experience and even overall talent. To look at these two teams closely, I’d like to offer a similar analysis as I did for the Canucks/Flames series.
The two teams have gone head to head five teams this past regular season, and the Ducks have won 3 of their five games. In terms of scoring differentials, their first two games were quite close, however the last three games were all 6-3 scores; two of which won by the Ducks, and the final by the Flames.
In reviewing the final three games played against one another, we can see that both teams offered a fast paced, hard hitting, and offensive rush style game. Given that we’re talking about 27 total goals scored over their last three contests, we will likely see a lot of the red light going off.
When comparing their home and away record, Calgary won their two games at home, while the Ducks won two at home and one on the road. So, all things considered, home and road record a wash.
Stats Comparisons(regular season):
PP% - CGY: 13th, ANA: 28th PK% - ANA: 15th, CGY: 20th SA/GP – ANA: 10th, CGY: 12th FO% - ANA: 9th, CGY: 26th HITS: ANA: 10th, CGY: 21th GvA: ANA: 10th, CGY: 3rd TkA: CGY: 1st, ANA: 21st
As we can see above, the overall stats do favour the Anaheim Ducks, however in most instances the Flames are not too far behind. In terms of puck possession, one could argue that with Anaheim’s stronger faceoff ability, their control of the play may be more evident right off the bat, but the Flames counter with a very strong takeaway game, despite coughing up the puck a little too much.
Their specialty teams could be a flip of the coin given that where one is a little stronger, the other is weaker. Anaheim will certainly be a hard hitting team, though in terms of playoff hits, Calgary is just barely behind them – so possibly a wash there.
When looking at how either team controls the play (securing leads etc), interestingly enough both teams have very similar winning percentages when leading after two periods, however if Calgary is leading after the first period they close the game a whopping 88% of the time. This will certainly be crucial for the Flames as they look to try and get the Ducks chasing the puck and or lead as best they can.
The last stat that I’d like to comment on which is very important in all playoff series is goaltending. What’s interesting about these two teams is that they have rather equal numbers in terms of their winning percentages when being outshot, Anaheim being 3rd in the league while Calgary sits a few spots behind at 6th. This is indicative of strong defensive play and good tending. It will be interesting to see how Hiller plays against his former team...a little fire in his play, I'm sure!
I wholeheartedly expect to see both teams throwing a lot of pucks at the net to get the first two games out of the way and hopefully get in either netminder’s head. Expect the first 80 minutes of play to be all about testing the other group out with hits, shots, and chippy play, while I expect that as the teams settle in to game two we see one of the two show a little dominance over the other.
Thanks for reading!