NHL Shot Location

Another Shot Quality Quandary: League Variance, Evolution, Error

Benjamin Wendorf NHL League-Wide Analysis, Theory Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments
File:Alberti-Young-Hockey-Players-alb11bw.jpg

“Young Hockey Players” by Piotr Alberti, via Wikimedia Commons

Hockey statistical analysis isn’t really capturing all of hockey, or seeking to package it; it’s about getting as close we can to the essence of the thing. All the ideas, conclusions, best practices that we’ve cobbled together over the years give us an approximation of the actions a team, a player, or a fan could make going forward to better grasp the game.

Within this fact lies the greatest bone of contention for the hockey stats crowd, and the frequent refrain of critics who can only chirp from the sidelines. “Have you considered measuring this? Have you considered measuring that? Have you removed the games when the Rangers lacked sufficient compete level? Have you adjusted for Hamburglar’s pre- and post-lifetime gift certificate to McDonald’s?” While some of these adjustments may be worthy, and others utterly ridiculous, “shot quality” has been a persistent critique of the use of all shot attempts.

Admittedly, there are some interesting developments in Ryan Stimson’s work on puck movement, which might shed some light on an area yet explored. Though it’s not necessarily his focus, I think his data can give us an idea of how possession is maintained effectively. The remainder of shot quality, or at least the way it’s being conceptualized, lies in these remaining areas: type of shot, where shot is located on net, screened/tipped/direct/clear-look shot data, shooting talent, and where on the ice the shot is taken from. The former two, according to Gabe Desjardins, didn’t really demonstrate themselves when he came across the data (nor when I asked him a month ago). Shot location has already died a partial death by Desjardins, who found it seems to have minimal impact on save percentage, though he also found a team talent component, to the tune of differences ranging up to 0.7 feet.

Let me put the location stuff to bed the rest of the way.

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The NHL Systems Argument: Comparing Bruce Boudreau, Alain Vigneault, & Lindy Ruff

Benjamin Wendorf NHL League-Wide Analysis, Theory Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Bruce-Alain Ruff. Looks like the ghost of Gene Hackman. You're welcome for the nightmares. Composite of images by

“Bruce-Alain Ruff. Looks like the ghost of Gene Hackman. You’re welcome for the nightmares.” Composite of images by “DSCF1837” (Vigneault), Michael Miller (Boudreau), and Arnold C. (Ruff), via Wikimedia Commons*

Systems are without question the most elusive, yet most important, part of our understanding of hockey and the application of analytics. What works and what doesn’t? To what degree can a coach or team apply a strategy?

This led me to think about where we might most convincingly see evidence of a system at work. In the past, we here at HG have had a lot of skepticism about a number of elements of a “system.” For example, Garik’s pieces on competition-matching lines (here and here) and the use of the “defensive shell” to protect a lead, neither of which presented themselves as particularly effective ways of looking at or implementing systems. I have shown in the past that attempts to use extreme deployment in terms of zone starts doesn’t move the needle beyond a 60-40 range of possession, the range of shooting shares for forwards and defensemen haven’t seemed to change much over the last 20-25 years, and a plotting of even-strength shots-for with top and bottom possession teams do not suggest a major difference in shot location.

So where to go from there? Eventually, I decided that we need to get to an extreme enough situation, with robust enough data, where a team might have the best opportunity to dictate a system — in other words, we need to look at the powerplay. The most ideal opportunity for comparison, given the workable data for me, comes from the coaching careers since 2008-09 of Bruce Boudreau, Lindy Ruff, and Alain Vigneault. They all provide at least a couple of seasons with different teams, in addition to a robust set of coaching data from 2008 to the present. Let’s see what we can see…

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Friday Quick Graphs: Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, and Boston Bruins Shot Distributions, 5 Years

Benjamin Wendorf Friday Quick Graphs, NHL League-Wide Analysis Tags: , , , , , , 4 Comments

What you see above are the even-strength shots-for locations for the near-indisputable top team of the last five seasons (Chicago Blackhawks) versus the near-indisputable worst team of the last five seasons. This is a sort of visual anti-shot quality argument, a demonstration of why, across these five seasons, the indisputable #1 team would shoot 9.9% while the indisputable #30 team would shoot 9.6%. Notice the horseshoe design, about where defensemen normally sit, then jump up into the play. Notice the dense cluster around the high slot. All teams make these plays, try to make them, the difference being some are better at possessing and moving the puck to make the shot. What’s the primary difference above? The amount of shots.

None of the above charting is possible without Greg Sinclair’s awesome site, Super Shot Search. Bookmark it, use it, love it.

Oh, hey, what if I was to look at the teams with the best and worst save percentage these last five years? Would they look different in even-strength shots-against? Well, let’s see, Toronto and Boston:

There is a difference here, I think. I mean, the initial difference are the numbers, Boston’s SV% (92.1%) versus Toronto’s (89.5%). Another difference is it seems the two charts maintain roughly the same shot distributions, but flip ends of the rink. Not much to dwell on there. One thing I will say, that could relate to the SV% discrepancy, is that it doesn’t appear that Toronto records many, if any, shots from right along the boards. Now, I don’t know if this is a recorder’s error or not; it seems to me it’s pretty hard to get a shot from right tight along the boards. Maybe one recorder does it based on where the body of the skater was located, I don’t know. Or…Toronto does allow shooters to come in a little tighter, and Boston owns the center ice a bit better. Could that explain a near-3% discrepancy? I don’t think so; we know Toronto’s had worse goaltending. But it might’ve “helped.”