On target: why are the Sabres leading the league in this stat, and what does it mean?

[Doohicksie]

18 hours ago, French Collection said:

1 part of the equation is that the Sabres have a deadly PP. Most of the goals are from one timers, tap ins or great snipes. The overall volume of shots is low but conversion rate is high.

Dont ask me to provide the statistical proof, they are not a high volume shooting team on the PP and 5v5.

The back to the Avs game:  Their power play and the way they played with the goalie pulled was to crank low percentage shots toward the net and hope for a tip-in or a rebound.  That's generally not the way the Sabres play in those situation.  Colorado's scheme probably generates more shots but not necessarily more goals.

18 hours ago, French Collection said:

Tage leads the team in shots by a lot and he has a great shooting percentage.

Dragging the Sabres down is KO with a 5.9% and Power with 0%.

But KO and Power don't have a large percentage of the shots either.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

2 hours ago, SwampD said:

That wasn’t meant to be serious. Sorry.

I was bored and curious about this this morning so I did the math.

Without Tage, they would still be tied for third fourth, with a S% of 11.342%. Although, I can’t find a team S% list that goes to three decimal places. It might not be a tie. Still really good. (Never mind, just found it.)

With Tage, they are 12.257%

So, in other words ...

Tage is great and the rest are almost as great, or perhaps a bit greater when you don't include the two albotroses that are sinking the percentage (Power and KO).

[PerreaultForever]

5 hours ago, SwampD said:

That wasn’t meant to be serious. Sorry.

I was bored and curious about this this morning so I did the math.

Without Tage, they would still be tied for third fourth, with a S% of 11.342%. Although, I can’t find a team S% list that goes to three decimal places. It might not be a tie. Still really good. (Never mind, just found it.)

With Tage, they are 12.257%

See, not that to me is more impressive. 

I suspect Cozens has helped raise it from last year as well. His shooting has improved tremendously. 

[John Tucker]

I think part of it is that they tend to over pass in order to get the higher percentage shot.  For the most part it has been working.

Edited December 27, 2022 by John Tucker

[Quint]

A bit early here but interesting...Not surprisingly, Thompson is among the leaders in the NHL in hitting the post with six. (Trocheck leads with nine) When you shoot as much as Tage, you're going to dent a few posts too. Olofsson is up there, so is Peterka. Most of the best shooters in the league are in the top fifty hitting the post. But as dramatic sounding as the clink it off the post, it's still missing the net.

One thing that I noticed in the first stat sheet at least, is how little the Sabres hit. Of course, the Sabres are the youngest team in the league and there are a lot of positives, mainly on the offensive side. Stating the obvious, including the second chart, areas to address include: hitting, penalty kill, faceoffs and shots and goals against, the nuts and bolts of hockey. As long as they maintain their scorching offensive pace, when the Sabres catch up in the areas mentioned above, look out.

https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20222023&seasonTo=20222023&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=missedShotGoalpost&page=0&pageSize=50

https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams

Edited December 29, 2022 by Quint

[Cascade Youth]

Interesting too that Skinner is thriving in THIS kind of environment - I always thought of him as kind of a dumpster-diver scorer who was at his best in a high shot-volume offense.  Either he’s adapted or I was wrong (or both).

And for that matter - also interesting that VO, supposedly our best pure shooter - is struggling in this type of scenario.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Cascade Youth