The Calgary Flames’ third line continues to dominate their opposition

Currently, the Calgary Flames’ trio of Andrew Mangiapane, Mikael Backlund, and Blake Coleman leads all lines in the NHL in terms of generating offence for and suppressing offence against this season (minimum ice time of 150 minutes) heading into the club’s nine-day break. They have an expected goals percentage of 72.7%, courtesy of MoneyPuck.com. They lead the trio of Jesper Bratt, Erik Haula, and Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils, who rank second with an expected goals percentage of 69.3%, and the Boston Bruins’ trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Jake DeBrusk, who rank third with an expected goals percentage of 66.3%.

Calgary’s third line statistics

• 274 – Shot Attempts For
• 138 – Shot Attempts Against
• 3.12 – Goals For Per 60 Minutes
• 0.94 – Goals Against Per 60 Minutes

As a line, they’re just rolling in the offensive zone and have turned their defensive zone into a very hard place to get high-danger chances. This is especially seen with Backlund and Coleman. Let’s see how each player fares in both zones at 5v5, courtesy of HockeyViz.com.

Andrew Mangiapane

Season Totals Through 50 GP: 10 goals, 16 assists = 26 points, +1

Last 10 Games (since Jan 8 in Chicago): 3 goals, 6 assists = 9 points, +7

Mikael Backlund

Season Totals Through 50 GP: 9 goals, 20 assists = 29 points, +11

Last 10 Games (since Jan 8 in Chicago): 1 goal, 7 assists = 8 points, +3

Blake Coleman

Season Totals Through 50 GP: 10 goals, 13 assists = 23 points, +7

Last 10 Games (since Jan 8 in Chicago): 3 goals, 5 assists = 8 points, +8

Models of consistency

The common theme? All three players have excelled at being exquisitely reliable both offensively and defensively, and as a unit, they’ve absolutely dominated even-strength possession rates. Seeing the trio continue their elite work after their nine-day break should be exciting.

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Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire