The Noon Number: 32.1

by Peter Raaymakers on Jan 26, 2012 12:00 PM EST in Ottawa Senators Noon Number

Craig Anderson is about to make one of the 1,284 saves he's already made this season.

32.1 - Average shots allowed per game by the Ottawa Senators, tied with the Minnesota Wild as the highest in the NHL.

As good as Craig Anderson has been for much of the season, the Senators are relying on him to do significantly more than most other goaltenders in the league not just in terms of games played, but in terms of shots faced. In order to continue their success after the All-Star Break and (hopefully) into the playoffs, the Senators badly need to tighten up their game defensively and offer Anderson (and Alex Auld, assuming he plays again this season) a little more support.

Anderson, as you would expect, leads the league in both shots faced (1,411) and saves made (1,284). He also leads the league in goals against (127), largely by virtue of those two figures.

On the other side of the puck, Ottawa averages 30.8 shots for per game, which is eleventh-best in the league. Their shots for-shots against factor is -1.3, which is 17th-best in the league (nowhere near as bad as Minnesota, at -5.3, or even the Nashville Predators, -3.5) but still leaves ample room for improvement.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have the league's best S/G-SA/G factor, averaging 7.8 more shots for per game than shots against.

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Nicely done

Very nicely done Peter.

As a long time hockey coach I always thought that shots allowed per game was a decent measure of how my defence was doing. This is because when we were consistently getting the puck out of the zone towards offensive chances, and consistently getting back to defend well, alot of the goalie’s work got done for him before the puck ever got to him.

When Jacques Martin coached, our goalies got shielded alot because we were very good defensively.

I’m not suggesting that we need to play like that, but we do need to find a happy medium between playing all out Martin style defensively, and all out “last shot wins” offence… so that if Anderson doesn’t stand on his head, we don’t win kind of hockey.

Maybe the mix of dmen is not the right one, and maybe it’’s the system that we overplay. I think it’s a combination of the two that causes these kinds of stats.

by Marvellous on Jan 26, 2012 12:35 PM EST reply actions

Great stuff, Peter

That’s unbelievable that the Pens take 7.8 more shots than they give up. Just absolutely astounding.

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by DarrenM on Jan 26, 2012 1:18 PM EST reply actions

Isn't it?

That’s an absolutely MASSIVE margin.

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by Peter Raaymakers on Jan 26, 2012 2:15 PM EST up reply actions

I'd be interested to see how many shots we attempt

We have a lot of missed and blocked shots – primarily from the poinst and Jason “Top Cheese Every Time” Spezza. I wonder how much that would change things.

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by RogerTheShrubber on Jan 26, 2012 1:22 PM EST reply actions