Hello and welcome back to Geek of the Week! It is still a little early in the season and we don't have much data to work with yet, but I will be diving into the world of shot attempts in this article and highlighting some early season surprises. We'll examine shots on goal – when a players attempt hits the net (but not the post), unblocked shot attempts, sometimes represented as individual Fenwick For (iFF) – when a players shot attempt either hits the net or misses the net, and shot attempts, sometimes represented as individual Corsi For (iCF) – when a player shoots the puck toward the net, whether it hits it, misses, or gets blocked.

Andrei Svechnikov

We only have one game to go off of for Svechnikov, so we can't jump to conclusions. Yet he had 12 shot attempts against Tampa Bay! This is more than in ANY game last year. Four of these shot attempts were blocked, resulting in 8 iFFs. Of these, three missed the net, which resulted in 5 SOG. He received plenty of PP time with 4:10 in PPTOI, but only 2 of these 12 shot attempts were on the PP, suggesting strong even strength play. With this new Carolina roster that has less depth than in previous years, we could see a new style of play from Svechnikov as a premier shooter on this team.

Tage Thompson

Tage has played 4 games so far this season and has had at least eight shot attempts in every one, averaging 10 a game. That shows a consistent desire to fire the puck. Unfortunately for him, most of his shot attempts (65%) have not reached the net, either missing or being blocked. In his previous three seasons, the percentage of shot attempts that hit the net for him have ranged only from 51.7% to 53.6%. His numbers should regress closer to his previous season and he should get plenty of shots to come. Tage's consistency in shot attempts is a great sign for shots on goal, goals, and points to come his way.

Trevor Moore

On the other side of the coin, we have Moore who has had an impressive 9 SOG through two games. He's among the league leaders in SOG per game! He has hit the net on 82% of his shot attempts though… Don't expect this to continue. This number has been 56%-57% in the past two seasons. I fully expect him to start missing the net and shooting into some blocks more often. I would expect close to 3 SOG per game moving forward.

Honourable Mentions – High SOG/iCF%

These players have all had an abnormally high amount of their shot attempts hit the net. If their iCF numbers stay similar, expect their SOG rates to drop.

Nikita Kucherov – 85.7%, 6 SOG on 7 iCF

Jonathan Marchessault – 69.2%, 9 SOG on 13 iCF

Tom Wilson – 71.4%, 5 SOG on 7 iCF

Mark Scheifele – 66.7%, 10 SOG on 15 iCF

Mikael Granlund – 69.2%, 9 SOG on 13 iCF

Mats Zuccarello – 100%, 7 SOG on 7 iCF

Honourable Mentions – Low SOG/iCF%

These players have all had an abnormally low amount of their shot attempts hit the net. If their iCF numbers stay similar, expect their SOG rates to rise.

Kirill Kaprizov – 39%, 7 SOG on 18iCF

Evan Bouchard – 16.7% 3 SOG on 18 iCF

Artemi Panarin – 35%, 6 SOG on 17 iCF

Quinn Hughes – 6.7%, 2 SOG on 15 iCF

Rasmus Dahlin – 18.5%, 5 SOG on 27 iCF

Hope you enjoyed this week’s breakdown!

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