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| There is a good chance this shot last season from Patrik Berglund missed the net. (U.S. Presswire) |
On Monday, the folks at Pension Plan Puppets, a blog dedicated to the Toronto Maple Leafs, took an interesting look at defenseman Dion Phaneuf and the rest of the Leafs and their tendancy to miss the net. Their findings: In absolute terms, Phaneuf misses the net more than their other defenseman but only because he attempts more shots than any other player on their blue line.
In terms of percentages, he's right in line with the league average.
I wanted to take it a step further and take a look at the NHL as a whole and which players aggravated their coaches and fans the most last season by firing pucks off the glass instead of on the net.
We're going to separate forwards and defensemen because defensemen -- due to their position on the ice and the fact their shots are coming from further away -- are going to miss the net more than forwards. We're also just taking into account 5-on-5 play. And, in an effort to eliminate any small sample sizes, we're limiting it to a mininum of 20 games played and at least 100 shot attempts.
Let's start with the forwards who missed the net most.
| Forwards Missed Shot Attempts | ||||||||
| Player | Misses | Total Attempts | Miss % | Avg. Distance | ||||
| Nikolai Kulemin (Maple Leafs) | 72 | 166 | 43.7% | 31.4 | ||||
| Mike Richards (Kings) | 64 | 169 | 37.8% | 33.1 | ||||
| Patrik Berglund (Blues) | 75 | 207 | 36.2% | 26.6 | ||||
| Steve Ott (Stars) | 50 | 139 | 35.9% | 36.4 | ||||
| Jussi Jokinen (Hurricanes) | 46 | 128 | 35.9% | 31.1 | ||||
| Zack Smith (Senators) | 64 | 180 | 35.5% | 33.2 | ||||
| Tim Connolly (Maple Leafs) | 41 | 116 | 35.3% | 30.7 | ||||
| Trevor Lewis (Kings) | 47 | 133 | 35.3% | 31.1 | ||||
| Matt D'Agostini (Blues) | 44 | 125 | 35.2% | 32.5 | ||||
| Luke Adam (Sabres) | 38 | 108 | 35.1% | 32.5 | ||||
A few thoughts and observations:
• The NHL average miss percentage for forwards in 2011-12 was 26.2 percent.
• Toronto's Nikolai Kulemin had some issues, but it was also far out of line from his recent seasons. Perhaps just an unlucky season? In 2010-11, his miss percentage was only 26.2 percent. Or, in other words, right in line with the league average.
• Check out the Blues' Patrik Berglund, the third-ranked player on the list. He's the only player in the top 10 whose average shot distance was closer than 30 feet from the net.
Even more than that, Berglund was one of only four players in the top 30 whose average shot distance was closer than 30 feet. The others were his teammate David Perron, Anaheim's Niklas Hagman and Phoenix's Mikkel Boedker.
Not only was he missing the net, he was doing it from relatively close range. Keep in mind the average shot distance for forwards was about 30.1 feet. It's a problem that started for Berglund last season when his miss percentage was up also up over 30 percent, after being closer to the league average (27 percent) in the two years prior.
• As for the other end of the spectrum, here are the five players who missed the net the least: Matt Cullen (12.7 percent), Michael Santorelli (15.3 percent), Boyd Gordon (16.0 percent), Jonathan Toews (17.1 percent) and Matt Halischuk (17.3 percent).
And now let's move on to the defensemen:
| Defensemen Missed Shot Attempts | ||||||||
| Player | Misses | Total Attempts | Miss % | Avg. Distance | ||||
| Jan Hejda (Avalanche) | 53 | 123 | 43.0% | 57.6 | ||||
| Jake Gardiner (Maple Leafs) | 44 | 106 | 41.1% | 50.6 | ||||
| Alex Goligoski (Stars) | 64 | 162 | 39.5% | 57.0 | ||||
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic (Sharks) | 67 | 173 | 38.7% | 51.7 | ||||
| Matt Greene (Kings) | 46 | 119 | 38.6% | 56.0 | ||||
| Dmitry Kulikov (Panthers) | 40 | 104 | 38.4% | 54.0 | ||||
| Zach Bogosian (Jets) | 55 | 146 | 37.7% | 57.7 | ||||
| Duncan Keith (Blackhawks) | 68 | 182 | 37.3% | 50.7 | ||||
| Jay Harrison (Hurricanes) | 50 | 134 | 37.3% | 53.5 | ||||
| Luca Sbisa (Ducks ) | 41 | 110 | 37.2% | 49.9 | ||||
• The miss average for NHL defensemen in 2011-12 was 32.1 percent, and the average shot distance was a little more than 52 feet.
• The players with the fewest misses: Shane O'Brien (22.1 percent), Kyle Quincey (23.4 percent), Jordan Leopold (23.6 percent), Erik Johnson (24.8 percent) and Kevin Klein (25.0 percent).
Boston's Dennis Seidenberg had the eighth-lowest percentage among defensemen at 25.4 percent despite being one of just six players to have an average shot distance of more than 60 feet, which is pretty incredible. He's one of the more underrated and steady defensemen in the league who does pretty much everything well. Including his ability to get the puck on the net.
(Shot data via Behindthenet.ca)
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