Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
Personally, I have never agreed with the "well, we have a high shooting percentage because we only shoot in high chance areas" argument.
That statement implies that Hartley has discovered something no other coach has thought of before. And I don't believe that for one second. We are bucking expectations, plain and simple.
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A lot of people have thought this though? Some players prefer to take shots with high scoring chances or do something else with the puck. Tanguay would be a prime example of this. Unless he thinks he has a good chance of scoring, he's not shooting. It's reflected in his ~20% career shooting percentage.
On the other end of the spectrum, some players are fine with taking shots from anywhere. They have their preferences but will shoot the puck rather than try and make that low percentage play. Iginla would be good examples as he never shied away from shooting. His career shooting percentage of ~13% once again reflect this.
Coaches have their own preferences as well. We've seen it especially with PP's where it was clearly a mandate to just shoot the puck at any opportunity and have someone there for the rebound/deflection, we've seen the opposite where it was okay to cycle and pass the puck for 20+ seconds waiting for that scoring chance. They are different strategies, not necessarily better strategies.
While not 100% accurate, these charts compares Monahan (29-28-57) to his closest statistical comparison, Vrbata (30-28-58). Vrbata has 12% shooting and Monahan has 16%. Vrbata has 65 more shots. Should he have scored more goals though?
http://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/ic...&r2strength=#5
http://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/ic...=1&r1strength=
Monahan takes more shots from in front of the net and high success places. Vrbata's shots are more evenly distributed across the zone. When you look at the shot location graphs it's not hard to tell which player is likelier to have the higher shooting percentage.
If/when Monahan's shooting percentage goes down, it wont be because of bad luck (or lack of good luck). It will be teams learning not to leave him unchecked in front of the net, forcing him to take more perimeter shots.