The Flames were up against a Minnesota Wild team that's been rather resurgent since the start of the season. It was apparent entering the game that they'd be in for a tough task and the team desperately needed two points to keep up with the Los Angeles Kings. Unfortunately they came out rather flat and were outperformed both even strength and on special teams as the Wild took it to the Flames by a score of four to two.

Flames Corsi Data

# Period One Period Two Period Three Total CF CA CF% CF REL% CF CA CF% CF REL% CF CA CF% CF REL% CF CA CF% CF REL% 3 4.1 0.0 100.0% 79.0% 4.8 2.8 63.2% 28.8% 9.3 2.5 78.8% 51.6% 18.2 5.4 77.1% 48.2% 33 4.1 0.0 100.0% 79.0% 3.8 2.8 57.6% 21.4% 6.5 2.5 72.2% 34.7% 14.4 5.3 73.1% 40.5% 32 2.0 1.9 51.3% 19.8% 4.9 3.8 56.3% 21.2% 5.5 3.9 58.5% 15.0% 12.4 9.6 56.4% 20.0% 8 3.1 2.9 51.7% 22.7% 3.8 2.7 58.5% 22.4% 2.7 3.6 42.9% -7.1% 9.6 9.2 51.1% 12.5% 18 3.1 2.9 51.7% 22.7% 3.8 4.6 45.2% 7.1% 2.7 2.6 50.9% 3.1% 9.6 10.1 48.7% 9.7% 6 3.1 4.9 38.8% 6.1% 7.8 10.3 43.1% 6.2% 5.6 5.1 52.3% 6.2% 16.4 20.2 44.8% 6.1% 24 1.0 2.8 26.3% -10.0% 3.9 4.7 45.3% 7.2% 4.6 4.1 52.9% 6.4% 9.5 11.7 44.8% 4.8% 23 1.0 3.8 20.8% -17.5% 5.8 7.5 43.6% 5.9% 4.6 3.1 59.7% 15.5% 11.4 14.4 44.2% 4.3% 21 2.0 2.8 41.7% 8.7% 4.8 8.4 36.4% -4.8% 4.7 4.0 54.0% 8.0% 11.5 15.3 42.9% 2.6% 13 1.0 3.8 20.8% -17.5% 6.8 8.4 44.7% 8.1% 3.6 3.1 53.7% 6.9% 11.5 15.4 42.8% 2.3% 60 2.0 2.8 41.7% 8.7% 4.8 7.3 39.7% .1% 2.1 3.0 41.2% -8.8% 8.9 13.2 40.3% -1.1% 4 3.1 6.8 31.3% -5.9% 6.8 10.4 39.5% -.1% 3.8 7.2 34.5% -22.5% 13.6 24.2 36.0% -8.6% 11 2.1 5.9 26.3% -12.9% 2.0 5.6 26.3% -16.3% 4.6 5.2 46.9% -2.3% 8.6 16.5 34.3% -9.3% 86 3.1 2.9 51.7% 22.7% 0.9 7.3 11.0% -35.7% 2.7 3.7 42.2% -8.0% 6.7 13.9 32.5% -11.0% 19 2.1 7.7 21.4% -22.8% 6.8 9.2 42.5% 4.7% 1.1 3.2 25.6% -26.9% 9.9 20.0 33.1% -11.7% 17 2.1 5.9 26.3% -12.9% 1.0 5.5 15.4% -28.7% 2.9 5.2 35.8% -17.6% 5.9 16.4 26.5% -19.2% 29 1.0 8.6 10.4% -41.0% 4.8 10.9 30.6% -14.6% 0.0 5.1 .0% -58.9% 5.9 24.8 19.2% -32.5% 7 1.0 10.5 8.7% -50.8% 4.8 12.8 27.3% -21.5% 2.7 7.3 27.0% -32.9% 8.5 30.6 21.7% -33.2% Tm 8.2 15.4 34.7% 16.4 25.0 39.6% 13.9 14.8 48.4% 38.5 55.2 41.1% Player Data from War-On-Ice.com All data is five on five and score adjusted.

If there was a minor victory to take home from this game, it's that Raphael Diaz and David Schlemko continue to impress at a high level (more on that later). Paul Byron didn't look rusty at all as he showed that he's still a beneficial possession driver. Of course a con to that would be that none of these individuals have contracts for the upcoming season.

TJ Brodie had himself a terrible game. His possession numbers were actually a bit worse than Deryk Engelland had. Lance Bouma also had some abysmal numbers with a 26.5 Corsi for percentage. Beyond that the numbers get a bit more muddied together. It's hard to pick out exactly who played poorly when eight players posted negative relative Corsi numbers when the team as a whole was a little under 41.1 percent after adjusting for score effects.

Flames Traditional Data

# All Scenarios 5v5 4v5 PK 5v4 PP TOI G A iSC iCF PND PNT FOW FOL BS HIT +/- OZS DZS +/- FA P iCF 86 13 1 0 3 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 0 0 60 9.2 1 0 2 3 0 0 2 3 0 1 -1 1 2 0 1 0 0 32 13.2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 5 -1 3 0 0 8 12.4 0 1 1 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 18 11.8 0 1 2 2 0 0 6 2 0 1 1 2 4 0 0 0 0 21 13.4 0 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 -1 1 3 -1 3 0 0 33 13.4 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 2 0 0 0 1 3 17.2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 17 15.7 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 2 11 0 0 0 1 11 19.4 0 0 1 1 0 0 9 9 0 1 0 2 11 0 0 0 0 29 18 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 2 14 0 1 0 3 19 16.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1 1 11 0 0 0 0 13 20.3 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 6 5 0 0 0 3 23 19.2 0 0 3 5 1 0 8 14 1 0 -1 6 5 0 0 0 1 7 24.6 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 3 1 -1 4 14 -1 2 0 0 6 23 0 0 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 -2 5 6 0 0 0 0 24 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -2 6 3 -1 2 0 0 4 23.8 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 -3 5 6 0 0 0 0 TOI - Time on Ice | G - Goals | A - Assists | ISC - Individual Scoring Chances | ICF - Individual Corsi | PND - Penalties Drawn | PNT - Penalties Taken | FOW - Faceoffs Won | FOL - Faceoffs Lost | BS - Blocked Shots | HIT - Hits | OZS - Offensive Zone Starts | DZS - Defensive Zone Starts | FA - Fenwick Against | P - Points All Data from war-on-ice.com

Josh Jooris had a bad game possession wise, but put home a goal for the Flames and tied for the lead in scoring chances. With only three scoring chances, that's not necessarily a compliment. The offense could best be described as anemic tonight and this one was really all Minnesota.

Kris Russell had himself a terrible game by just about every imaginable metric. Regression in his plus minus due to his possession numbers is quite overdue, but most wouldn't expect an individual to fall three spots on the team in one night. He only had one Corsi attempt all night and that was blocked.

The W.O.W.Y. Data

3 4 6 7 8 11 13 17 18 19 21 23 24 29 32 33 60 86 3 NA 1/1 3/0 1/0 8/3 5/1 4/1 2/0 7/3 1/0 7/4 2/0 3/1 0/0 9/2 15/5 6/1 7/3 20/6 4 1/1 NA 14/21 1/5 4/3 4/8 9/14 3/7 1/1 5/13 2/5 10/13 8/12 NA 2/1 0/0 1/5 1/1 16/27 6 3/0 14/21 NA 1/1 3/2 7/6 8/11 5/6 1/1 5/11 3/4 9/11 6/9 NA 6/1 NA 1/4 1/1 18/22 7 1/0 1/5 1/1 NA 1/6 4/13 2/5 2/13 1/6 4/11 4/8 2/4 2/3 6/26 2/7 0/0 2/9 1/11 9/32 8 8/3 4/3 3/2 1/6 NA 2/2 1/1 1/1 9/8 3/2 0/1 1/0 1/1 1/6 1/0 7/2 0/0 7/8 12/11 11 5/1 4/8 7/6 4/13 2/2 NA 2/2 7/17 NA 3/11 2/0 NA 1/1 2/10 5/5 0/0 NA 2/2 11/19 13 4/1 9/14 8/11 2/5 1/1 2/2 NA NA NA 2/4 NA 11/15 10/12 1/3 1/1 2/0 NA 0/0 13/17 17 2/0 3/7 5/6 2/13 1/1 7/17 NA NA 0/0 3/11 NA 0/0 0/0 2/10 3/5 0/0 0/1 1/2 7/18 18 7/3 1/1 1/1 1/6 9/8 NA NA 0/0 NA 2/2 0/2 NA 0/0 1/6 1/2 7/3 NA 6/6 10/10 19 1/0 5/13 5/11 4/11 3/2 3/11 2/4 3/11 2/2 NA 2/4 3/3 NA 4/7 NA 1/0 2/5 NA 10/21 21 7/4 2/5 3/4 4/8 0/1 2/0 NA NA 0/2 2/4 NA 1/0 1/1 2/7 8/4 6/4 9/13 1/7 12/16 23 2/0 10/13 9/11 2/4 1/0 NA 11/15 0/0 NA 3/3 1/0 NA 10/11 1/2 0/1 2/0 NA 0/0 12/15 24 3/1 8/12 6/9 2/3 1/1 1/1 10/12 0/0 0/0 NA 1/1 10/11 NA 1/1 NA 2/0 0/1 NA 11/13 29 0/0 NA NA 6/26 1/6 2/10 1/3 2/10 1/6 4/7 2/7 1/2 1/1 NA 1/7 NA 2/8 0/11 6/26 32 9/2 2/1 6/1 2/7 1/0 5/5 1/1 3/5 1/2 NA 8/4 0/1 NA 1/7 NA 6/2 7/2 NA 13/10 33 15/5 0/0 NA 0/0 7/2 0/0 2/0 0/0 7/3 1/0 6/4 2/0 2/0 NA 6/2 NA 6/1 6/3 15/5 60 6/1 1/5 1/4 2/9 0/0 NA NA 0/1 NA 2/5 9/13 NA 0/1 2/8 7/2 6/1 NA 0/6 9/14 86 7/3 1/1 1/1 1/11 7/8 2/2 0/0 1/2 6/6 NA 1/7 0/0 NA 0/11 NA 6/3 0/6 NA 8/15 20/6 16/27 18/22 9/32 12/11 11/19 13/17 7/18 10/10 10/21 12/16 12/15 11/13 6/26 13/10 15/5 9/14 8/15 42/59 .769 .372 .450 .220 .522 .367 .433 .280 .500 .323 .429 .444 .458 .188 .565 .750 .391 .348 .416 Attempts For/Attempts Against - Even Strength Corsi Numbers With - Data from Natural Stat Trick

Brodie's terrible night can be seen here pretty easily. He was positive with one player - Schlemko. Everybody else was even (one and one) or in the negatives. Meanwhile his partner in crime in Engelland was negative with everyone he played with and saw over 15 minutes in ice time. Playing him that many minutes given his record is going to result in a loss on more nights than not.

Bouma meanwhile may earn a pass for his play tonight looking at the W.O.W.Y. numbers. The negatives came mostly while partnered with Brodie and Engelland They weren't great with other defensemen, but sample sizes are small.

Eye On - Diaz and Schlemko

Diaz and Schlemko had a pretty good game, that much is given. They've also been pretty good as a pairing. As a matter of fact they've been very good as a pairing. Here's their numbers courtesy of Puckalytics entering tonight's game as a pair along with their numbers after tonight.

TOI GF GA GF60 GA60 GF% CF CA CF60 CA60 CF% Before 99.82 3 2 1.8 1.2 60 76 76 45.68 45.68 50 After 112.65 5 2 2.7 1.1 71.4 91 81 48.47 43.14 52.9

Obviously the numbers are a small sample size (this is only a little over 1/10th of the sample size Mark Giordano and Brodie had together), but the numbers are very good. They are making a very strong case for the Flames to re-sign them. In their limited sample size, they've performed considerably better than the Russell and Wideman pairing. Having positive possession on this team is no small feat.

Diaz might be the most underrated player on the team. He is posting positive relative Corsi numbers after being forced to play on his offhand with the biggest possession sieve on the team. Brodie is forced to play with Engelland now and is putting up worse numbers than Diaz has all season with him and has had the benefit of playing on his natural side.

Both deserve contracts and it would behoove the Flames to lock them both up as soon as possible for two or three years. There's no depth help on on the horizon for this team on defense and they could likely be locked up cheap. Having good, cost effective, possession driving defensemen at a cheap cost would allow the team to focus more money on forwards and would make up for the awful Engelland signing should they decide to bury him in the AHL.

Rolling Corsi Data

Finally, here's a rolling Corsi chart just for fun.