Early​ in the​ season, we don’t have​ a lot​ of​ data yet​ from games,​ which​ makes it​​ difficult to really dig into things from a numbers perspective. You’re left to rely on the eye test like it’s 1955 or something. As Canada’s teams embark on the 2018-19 season, I’m taking the time to go around the league and watching them to see what stands out early in the year. So far, I’ve taken a look at Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg. Today, the Calgary Flames.



Calgary’s got a new coach in Bill Peters this year, which tends to result in a bunch of changes that show up fairly quickly in the data, even if the results don’t change.



1. The Flames rarely ice the puck



After the Flames hired Peters, I half-jokingly suggested that any degenerate gamblers reading might want to hammer the under on the Flames’ icing rate for 2018-19. Last year’s Calgary team...