Wings v. Flames - By the Numbers
Throughout the week I will look at some of the statistics for both the Detroit Red Wings and the Calgary Flames. While I don’t think the statistics are going to tell the whole story, I think they can provide some interesting factors to follow as the series plays out.
Alot has been made of the fact that Calgary has done poorly on the road. That is true, but is mitigated to some extent by their excellent home record. In fact both Calgary and Detroit had the best home records in the NHL in terms of wins. Here are the statistics.
Home Wins
1. Calgary - 30 home wins
2. Detroit - 29 home wins
Road Wins
11. Detroit - 21 road wins
24. Calgary - 13 road wins
Calgary had the fewest road wins of any team that made the playoffs. However all they need to do is win one game at Joe Louis Arena and they will have taken home ice advantage from the Red Wings. Also, looking at road games since the start of March, Detroit has two impressive road wins at Nashville. The team also lost to Vancouver and Calgary on the road.
The Flames have been impressive of late on the road, beating Minnesota twice and Vancouver once on the road. But they have also lost to San Jose, Nashville, Colorado and Dallas. I think Calgary is clearly capable of winning at least one game in this series on the road. Can the Wings claim a game in Alberta?
The odds don’t look good. Detroit has played 6 games in western Canada. They have won one of those games, a 3-2 victory over Vancouver on November 14. However Detroit played the Flames tough on March 20, losing 2-1. My sense is that the pressure is on Detroit to hold serve at home. They are really going to have their work cut out for them if they lose a game at home and have to count on winning a game in Calgary to win the series.
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[…] Calgary Flames Dave at Gorilla Crouch compared the number of road and home wins for both teams. As many fans know, the Flames have not played well on the road this season although they did win some key games on the road coming down the stretch. They only have 13 road wins compared to Detroit’s 21 and Calgary only has one more win at home than the Wings. The biggest problem for the Wings will probably be keeping that home advantage. Once the Flames beat the Wings, they’ll take that home advantage where they play the best and could really do some damage to our team. […]
It’s obvious that we do not have a problem shooting, its the accuracy and quality of the shots. We’ve gotta stop standing at the point and trying to get the puck through the goaltenders, rather than past them. Kiprusoff will be an obsticle, of course, but we can pull this out if we really want to. Zetterberg & Datsyuk can make good enough plays to get him out of the way, and with Bertuzzi standing in people’s way,and hopefully we can get others like Lebda & Calder to put their bodies on some players, we can get buy these guys without to much worry. I think we can do it in 6, IF we don’t puss out and let them skate by us without doing anything about it.
Hkymnky,
The interesting thing is Detroit is #10 in goals for in the entire NHL, but two key cogs (Zetterberg and Bertuzzi) haven’t contributed much of late due to injuries. If they are actually able to perform reasonably close to their capabilities it will provide a huge boost for the Red Wings’ fortunes.
[…] Over the past couple days I’ve looked at some of the key statistics to try and get an idea on how this series will play out. Both teams have been excellent at home. Both teams boast top 10 offenses measured by “goals for” during the regular season. […]