There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical that the Calgary Flames' early season success is going to last for the remainder of the season.
They still get badly outshot on most nights and have been one of the worst possession teams in the league. Both are bad signs for long-term success. Even with those obvious shortcomings, they have been able to dance through the rain drops a little and win more games than expected thanks to some incredible goaltending that has already started to come back down to earth.
But if you really wanted a reason to be optimistic about the Flames' chances, both this season and in future seasons, the defense pairing of Mark Giordano and T.J Brodie would be a great place to start. Not only have they been carrying the Flames more than any other players on the team to this point, but they might be the best defensive pairing in the NHL.
And that's not hyperbole or an exaggeration. These guys are good. Really good.
Playing more than 24 minutes a night, Giordano and Brodie have spent almost all of their 5-on-5 ice-time on the ice together and play some of the toughest minutes in the NHL, especially when it comes to where they have been deployed on the ice, starting the overwhelming majority of their shifts in the defensive zone. Even with those tough minutes and the brutal usage, Giordano and Brodie are still able to play their way out of trouble on most shifts and are the driving forces behind their team offensively. Seriously, almost everything that happens for the Flames runs through Giordano and Brodie.
Had he not missed more than 20 games last season Giordano probably would have been a very worthy Norris Trophy winner (he still finished 10th in the voting) and is picking right up where he left off. He is not only leading the Flames in scoring entering play on Thursday with 19 points, but he is also leading all defensemen in the league. Brodie is third in the league with 14 points.
Considering their usage, those are incredible numbers.
Another way of looking at it is seeing just how much of the Flames' offense comes off the sticks of these two players. Here is a quick look at their leaders in terms of who has had a hand in their goals (whether it be scoring or assisting)
| Who is driving the Flames offense? | ||||
| Player | Goals | Assists | Points | Goal % |
| Mark Giordano | 5 | 14 | 19 | 38 |
| T.J. Brodie | 4 | 10 | 14 | 28 |
| Jiri Hudler | 5 | 8 | 13 | 26 |
| Johnny Gaudreau | 3 | 9 | 12 | 24 |
| Sean Monahan | 6 | 5 | 11 | 22 |
Again: They're defensemen. Contributing to 38 percent of your team's goals is a huge number for any player. For a defenseman, it is an enormous number. Only 15 players across the league have contributed to more of their teams goals than Giordano has contributed to Calgary, while he is the only defenseman to crack the top-30. Only five defensemen are in the top-50, and yes, another one of those five is Giordano's partner, T.J. Brodie.
With those two on the ice as a pairing so far this season the Flames have outscored their opponents during 5-on-5 play by a 15-10 margin. When they are not on the ice, the Flames have been outscored 17-21.
When you take into account their ability to suppress shots, goal prevention and drive offense despite being put into mostly defensive situations, few players have had a bigger impact on their team this season than Giordano and Brodie.
Here are a few other players that have had a similar impact on their team. Some names you might expect. Others you might not.
Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux - Philadelphia Flyers
Given their defense and goaltending situation the Philadelphia Flyers had the potential to be a real dumpster fire this season but it hasn't really played out that way quite yet. Though, given that they are only controlling 46 percent of the unblocked shot attempts during 5-on-5 play, that still very well could happen. But one of the reasons it hasn't has been the play of their top line led by Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek.
By this point, you should already know that Giroux is one of the best and most productive players in the league, but like Giordano and Brodie in Calgary, Voracek is finally starting to get some attention this season. Mainly because so many pucks are going in the net with him on the ice.
No player has contributed to a higher percentage of his team's goals so far this season than Voracek's 48.9, and even though it hasn't always translated into big numbers for him personally, ever since he arrived in Philadelphia he has been one of their most important offensive players.
Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins
Hey, what a surprise. The Penguins made a lot of changes over the summer in an effort to address their biggest weakness from the past two years -- depth. But it's still the Sidney Crosby show, and to a lesser extent, the Evgeni Malkin show, in Pittsburgh where the top two lines are still providing almost all of the offense.
No player contributed more to his team's offense than Crosby last season (more than 40 percent of the Penguins goals were either scored or assisted by Crosby) and he's doing it again this season with a goal or assist on 44 percent of their goals. To extend it even further, only 14 of the Penguins' 54 goals this season have come when neither Crosby or Malkin is on the ice.
Tyler Seguin - Dallas Stars
The Stars are not where they want to be right now, and Lindy Ruff was recently a little disappointed with the way some of his top players performed in a teamwork drill. But where would this team be without Tyler Seguin right now? Every single night he is a hat trick waiting to happen and has had a hand in nearly half of the Stars' goals this season.
There was a stretch over their previous three games where he either scored or assisted on six consecutive Stars goals, and had actually scored five in a row.
Assuming they stay healthy, there will probably only be two 100-point scorers in the NHL this season. Sidney Crosby will be one. Tyler Seguin will be the other.
Filip Forsberg, James Neal, and Mike Ribeiro - Nashville Predators
Peter Laviolette was a wonderful hire for the Predators. Shea Weber is one of the best defensemen in the NHL. Having a healthy Pekka Rinne back and doing his thing as one of the best goalies in the league has been huge. But nothing has been more important for the Nashville Predators this season than the fact that they now have a real top-line that can score. And with the trio of Filip Forsberg, James Neal and Mike Ribeiro, they seem to have found exactly that.
Those three are Nashville's leading scorers, all by a wide margin, and none of them played any kind of significant role on the team a year ago. Neal and Ribeiro weren't even on the team. Neal was acquired in a draft day trade from Pittsburgh for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling, while Ribeiro was signed to a bargain one-year contract after he was bought out by the Arizona Coyotes. Forsberg, who was acquired in the now infamous Martin Erat trade with Washington, only played in 13 games.
Even before Laviolette put them together early in the year, if the Predators scored a goal, it was coming from one of these three players.
Now that they're together, they've been unstoppable.
When that trio is on the ice together the Predators are outscoring their opponents 13-1 at even-strength, and they are the only players on the team that have recorded more than eight points through the first 15 games entering play on Thursday.