Carolina Hurricanes: Stubborn Shooting Percentage
By Thomas G
Statistically, the Canes should have a lot more goals than they do with a poor shooting percentage through 30 games this season.
A statistic I looked up recently, which surprised me, was our shots per game. With 35.1, the Canes are soaring high at 2nd in the NHL. Generally, the more shots you get, the more goals you score; the key word being generally.
Before I get to my point, let’s talk about shooting percentage. As you probably know, shooting percentage calculates the amount of shots that go into the net. If my shooting percentage is 20%, then 20% of my shots go into the net.
There has been a lot of debate on whether a player can actually control his shooting percentage. For example, this article, over at Nerd Hockey, concludes that players have no control over their shot efficiency.
On this article, the author concludes, that given enough shot attempts, there is a significant degree of skill in shots. Great, so what do I think? Well, I think there are high percentage and low percentage shots.
Some players are able to get into better shooting lanes than others, leading to a high shot percentage. Much like basketball, I agree that there are superior and inferior shooters. However, only the best of the best can consistently put up higher shooting percentages. This is a very rare skill to have.
So from this, we can essentially conclude that the Hurricanes are not scoring as much as they statistically should be. And just look at our abysmal shooting percentage. We are 3rd worst in the league with- with (shutters) 7.7%. Yikes.
Alright, so as awful as that number looks, there are positives to take from it. There are a whole lot of NHL players that loom around ‘Average.’ (as average as an NHL player can get, relatively) There is no way that the Hurricanes can continue to score so few goals with so many shots. Mark my words, that shooting percentage is going up.
With over 35 shots per game, it is evident that we have an ability to get the puck into the offensive zone. We can also shoot said puck at the scary man wearing the mask. It’s just that the masked man is making saves that he wouldn’t normally make.
Hopefully, over an 82 game season, the Hurricanes can work their way up in goals per game. Stats don’t lie, we have offensive talent. Unfortunately, we’re gonna have to wait until statistical probability levels itself out. Yay.
Tonight, the Canes have an opportunity to prove their offensive ability against an over-performing expansion team, in the Vegas Golden Knights.