The red get redder (and other links)

The C of Red has gotten redder. The Calgary Flames have added the perpetually angry Brian Burke to their front office as President of Hockey Operations. Many comments could be made regarding barn fights, grit overemphasis, untied ties, and Matt Stajan, but I’ll leave those up to the professionals. Here are first reactions from Matchsticks and Gasoline and FlamesNation to go along with today’s crop of links. Enjoy!

I kind of jumped the gun on my camp-related excitement yesterday. On Thursday the rookies underwent medical and fitness testing, with an optional practice that media did not have access to. Today is when the shit hits the fan. The first rookie practice, which is open to the media and public, will kick off at 8:30 AM. Until those practices are in the books; there’s no pertinent roster news to report.
Using data from 2005-2006 and filtering out goalies with less than two 25+ game seasons, Copper & Blue’s Derek Zona has ranked the even-strength save percentages of NHL goalies in that time frame. Carey Price is ranked 19th overall with a 92.4 EV SV%, ahead of Mike Smith, Corey Crawford, Craig Anderson, and Jonathan Quick.
With Carl Hagelin and Ryan Callahan banged up heading into 2013-2014, New York Rangers Director of Player Personnel Gordie Clark sees former Canadiens prospect Danny Kristo possibly filling in with the big club this year. This has caused Rangers fans to salivate over potential Montreal mismanagement that could turn into gains for the Blueshirts.

Lighthouse Hockey’s PGI reached out to Ryan Getzlaf’s barber, a man with a lot of time (and blood) on his hands, to get the lowdown on the new Pacific Division.
Michael Parkatti of Boys on the Bus adds to his on-ice shooting percentage research by examining differences in shooting percentage sustainability between forwards and defensemen. Parkatti concludes that forwards can “maintain high or low on-ice shooting percentages in a statistically significant way” while defenders show an “inability to consistently maintain high or low levels.”

Montreal Canadiens fan Antoine Mathieu has assembled a list of his 25 favourite Canadiens goals since 2005-2006. It’s an impressive compilation that I should have discovered way earlier. Great work, Antoine!

Talking Points