As I entered the data, one thing jumped out immediately—the Thrashers simply don’t shoot as much as other teams while they are on the power play. I’ve attended games in about 8-9 NHL arenas, and no matter where you are, fans always yell “shoooot” when their team is on the power play. But the Atlanta Thrashers really are more reluctant to take a shot with the man advantage.

Could it be a Euro-centric style of play?

I’ve never seen an NHL game anywhere except Atlanta, so I always wondered if the “shooot” thing was unique to us. Reading this made me flashback to that terrible first season for the Thrashers where they finished 3rd from last in PP pct. and tied for giving up the most shorthanded goals. The PP that year was pretty much “First guy across the blue line shoot at the net” followed by an effortless clear down the ice by the defense. Rinse and repeat. Yet a large number of fans still think that’s a way to run a PP. I’d rather see them pass the puck productively for 30+ seconds for a good look than throw some wild, low percentage shot at the net that gets sent back down the ice. Thursday’s game was a great example of how to effectively run a PP. I’m sure a lot of the fans in the stands were losing their minds over all the passing.

This is why you’re the best!

I was talking about this on your blog back in October (below). The trailing team typically caries the play in a game and unless they are totally having an off night they will outshoot the winning team in order to catch up.

With this said I’d like to take a deeper look at these numbers. The Thrashers have been terrible in the first period and seemingly falling behind often. Of late you’d think our shot differential would be slimmer simply because we’ve had to dig out of holes

This is what is dangerous about numbers. Stats are very important but you need context. Getting outshot has not been a problem this year (so far) because of the games themselves. You know? That thing that actually generates the stats?

Game 1. We went up 4-0. The team bunkered down and played most of the 2nd half of that game in their own end. You see this in virtually every NHL game. The team that is behind applies the pressure. This pattern was on display here.

Game 2. Thrashers take a 3-1 and play defense again. Shots were 5-5 after one period of play. The Thrashers converted, took a big lead, and sat back in their zone. Eventual shot disparity was -10

Game 3. Went down 2-0 early and ended up with the first period lead in shots. Surprised? Shouldn’t be because we were in comeback mode and tossing everything at the cage. The Thrashers tied the score at 2. Sens went up in the 2nd period again, and again we picked up the shots finishing even after 2 periods. In the 3rd we went down by a second goal and did a little tent folding. We were beaten

Game 4. Awful first period. The official excuse is rust. Goaltending saved our hide. We then proceeded to go up 3-1 and sat back in our shell

Game 5. Won the first period shot game. Went up on the scoreboard 3-1 and were outshot sitting in our shell again.

I couldn’t care less if we were outshot 40-4 every game as long as 4 of ours go in and less than 4 of theirs hit the twine

by 0vermars on Oct 19, 2009 7:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs