Lowest shooting percentages by a regular (non-goon) forward

[Blades of Glory]

A thread on Mikael Samuelsson got me curious. He had a horrific 4.4% shooting percentage in 2008, scoring 11 times on 249 shots. That year, Jason Blake had 15 goals on 332 shots (4.5%).

What are some other ridiculously innacurate shooting performances by a regular (top-six, non-goon) forward? I'm thinking the 4.5% area from those two has to be close to the record for lowest shooting percentage by a forward with at least 250 shots.

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[joe89]

Samuelsson was over the course of the full season only #7 though back in 2008:

Datsyuk
Zetterberg
Franzen
Filppula
Cleary
Holmstrom

Still incredibly low.

Blake was definitely top6 though.

Here are the lowest s% this season, feel free to dig.. http://www.nhl.com/ice/app?service=...All&viewName=shooting&sort=shootingPctg&pg=11

 

[reckoning]

A thread on Mikael Samuelsson got me curious. He had a horrific 4.4% shooting percentage in 2008, scoring 11 times on 249 shots. That year, Jason Blake had 15 goals on 332 shots (4.5%).

What are some other ridiculously innacurate shooting performances by a regular (top-six, non-goon) forward? I'm thinking the 4.5% area from those two has to be close to the record for lowest shooting percentage by a forward with at least 250 shots.

They are the only two forwards to ever get less than 5% on over 200 shots.

If we lower the minimum number of shots to 100, we get this list http://www.hockey-reference.com/pp/tiny.cgi?id=F84wH

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

They are the only two forwards to ever get less than 5% on over 200 shots.

If we lower the minimum number of shots to 100, we get this list http://www.hockey-reference.com/pp/tiny.cgi?id=F84wH

I modified this a bit more (did it from 1980-present, randomly), and sorted just the forwards with 10+ goals in any given year.

[The Results]

What was interesting, was clicking on the "Player" header to sort by name. Wouldn't you know, there was Scott Gomez and his 6 seasons with under 7% shooting percentage staring me in the face. As if I have to be reminded of the fact his isn't worth his salary everywhere I go.

 

[Morris Wanchuk]

Not a forward but Bourque has only a 6.6% for his career.

 

[Reasoned Opinion]

A thread on Mikael Samuelsson got me curious. He had a horrific 4.4% shooting percentage in 2008, scoring 11 times on 249 shots. That year, Jason Blake had 15 goals on 332 shots (4.5%).

What are some other ridiculously innacurate shooting performances by a regular (top-six, non-goon) forward? I'm thinking the 4.5% area from those two has to be close to the record for lowest shooting percentage by a forward with at least 250 shots.

It is quite amazing what Mikael Samuelsson has been able to do since wearing contact lenses in games since about December. Amazing. First time in NHL history an optometrist contributed to this many goals?

 

[seventieslord]

Interesting table. Can they do career numbers, too? I'd love to see the lowest career shooting percentages by all players with 100+ career goals or something like that.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

It is quite amazing what Mikael Samuelsson has been able to do since wearing contact lenses in games since about December. Amazing. First time in NHL history an optometrist contributed to this many goals?

Maybe not. I've seen a lot of guys at the beginning of game broadcasts coming to the rink wearing glasses, but obviously don't wear them on the ice. Lord knows how many used to simply take them off to play but eventually decided to get lenses. Not many probably ever make it/allow it to become public knowledge.

Interesting table. Can they do career numbers, too? I'd love to see the lowest career shooting percentages by all players with 100+ career goals or something like that.

You're a bastige for that one (see previous comment on Scott Gomez). But yeah. I just went randomly from 1967 to present (I think shooting percentage stats aren't available on that site if you go back much further than that), and:

[The Results]

Good ol' Gomez, second worst.

edit: by the way, it's under the "powerplay" tab at the top of that site. You can choose single season or "combined" (which pretty much equals "career" for all players whose careers fall entirely within your selected time frame).

 

[barneyg]

Not a forward but Bourque has only a 6.6%

d-men always have lower SH%. This year, Keith was 6.6% in the reg. season. Pronger was 5.7%. Lidstrom 4.6%. Kaberle 4.4%.

There's quite a bit of luck in single-season SH%. Few players are consistently lower than the league average (Samuelsson was an exception until this year, Blake is another where his 40 goals in NYI is the outlier)..

 

[Reasoned Opinion]

Maybe not. I've seen a lot of guys at the beginning of game broadcasts coming to the rink wearing glasses, but obviously don't wear them on the ice. Lord knows how many used to simply take them off to play but eventually decided to get lenses. Not many probably ever make it/allow it to become public knowledge.

Just the difference it has made to his game.....torrid scoring pace, first career hattie near end of season etc. etc. Wonder if the Canuck coaching staff pushed him (he Sammy, you wear glasses why nothing for the games?.....and when he looked at Ryan Walter and said "Coach AV, I...." they knew it was time to insist.

 

[barneyg]

Interesting table. Can they do career numbers, too? I'd love to see the lowest career shooting percentages by all players with 100+ career goals or something like that.

You asked for it, you got it here.

Powerful tool. You can have older players too but I don't know how accurate the SOG data was, there were some rather weird numbers for guys like Henri Richard and Bernie Geoffrion.

Bottom 10 since 1980: PJ Axelsson, Gomez, Blake, Samuelsson, Tom Fitzgerald, Marchant, B.Richards, Vrbata, Hecht, Rob DiMaio.

Top 10 since 1980 -- none of these played in the last 10 years: Craig Simpson, Charlie Simmer, Sergei Makarov, Paul MacLean, Rick Middleton, Darcy Rota, Blaine Stoughton, Mike Bossy, Tom McCarthy, Rob Brown

Top 10 among active players -- Tanguay, Brunette, Parrish, Holmstrom, Vanek, Heatley, Morrow, Brière, Selanne, Malone.

 

[Blades of Glory]

One wonders if Mike Babcock ever told Samuelsson to tune down the shooting. That's horrific; Jamarcus Russell-esque accuracy.
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[Canadiens1958]

Not Luck

d-men always have lower SH%. This year, Keith was 6.6% in the reg. season. Pronger was 5.7%. Lidstrom 4.6%. Kaberle 4.4%.

There's quite a bit of luck in single-season SH%. Few players are consistently lower than the league average (Samuelsson was an exception until this year, Blake is another where his 40 goals in NYI is the outlier)..

Luck is not a factor. Proper body position - squared away to the net, is the main factor,sense of time and space is also very important.

Players practice their shot etc but often they ignore body position or recognizing what the options are in any given situation.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Luck is not a factor. Proper body position - squared away to the net, is the main factor,sense of time and space is also very important.

Players practice their shot etc but often they ignore body position or recognizing what the options are in any given situation.

Being a tightly-guarded defenseman also means you're having to shoot around the blocks/bodies a bit more often. The good ones do this instead of blasting into a set of shin pads, often resulting in turnover breakaways.

 

[Blades of Glory]

Some career percentages for elite offensive defensemen:

Bourque, MacInnis, Blake, Leetch, Zubov, Niedermayer, Pronger, and Lidstrom are in the 6-7% range.

Coffey, Orr, Potvin, Robinson and Housley are in the 9-10% range.

Those numbers provide a pretty solid story. Most of the "shooters" are in the 6-7 category; Orr, Potvin, and Coffey (though he really didn't shoot much after 1990-ish) are the exceptions. I would classify Lidstrom, Niedermayer, Leetch, Zubov, and Robinson as "passers", while identifying Bourque, MacInnis, Blake, Pronger, Coffey, Orr, and Potvin as "shooters." I really don't know what to call Phil Housley, since I've always thought of him as a passer even though he scored a ton of goals in the 1980's.

It's hard to judge, honestly. Some shooting percentages are obviously inflated by the high-scoring era and obviously deflated as those players aged. Take Housley for example; from 1982-1993 he was a consistent 10-11% shooter, but the moment the first lockout hit he went down to the 6-7% area. I guess 9% is fairly accurate for his career, however. It's a pretty damn interesting thing to look at, that much I'll tell you.

I still have trouble believing that Ray Bourque holds such a significant advantage in the shots on goal category. Considering he was often the best offensive threat in Boston, regardless of the fact he played defense, I guess it can't be that surprising, but 900 more shots than the next closest player? The fact that he and MacInnis had such deadly shots, and weren't afraid to use them, but still only scored on about 6.5%, really speaks to the difficulty of scoring goals as a defenseman.

Looking at overall rankings, it's almost shocking to see the rather pedestrian list of players at the top of the shooting percentage chart. I honestly expected Gretzky to be higher, but he's only 44th.

 

[barneyg]

Luck is not a factor. Proper body position - squared away to the net, is the main factor,sense of time and space is also very important.

Players practice their shot etc but often they ignore body position or recognizing what the options are in any given situation.

There is luck in single-season SH% -- look at Jason Blake's 40-goal season. Because a player's SH% goes up or down from a season to another doesn't necessarily mean his body position changed, though I'm not going to argue with you that it's a factor. If you disagree that luck's a factor, explain why SH% bounces around so much from one year to another.

Vanek's career SH%, by season: 12.3% 18.1% 15.0% 19.0% 15.4%
Joe Thornton: 9.1% 12.5% 13.5% 20.4% 14.5% 18.4% 12.3% 14.9% 10.3% 16.3% 18.0% 14.2%. He had 114 points in the 10.3% season. Poor body positioning?
Mike Ribeiro (full seasons only): 19.4% 12.3% 16.2% 25.2% 13.5% 12.3%. 25.2% is the best SH% in the NHL in the past 10 years. Surely there's some luck with that number?

 

[reckoning]

The top shooting percentage marks in a season: http://www.hockey-reference.com/leaders/shot_pct_season.html

Two interesting facts that get noticed immediately:

- 4 of the top 10 were from linemates of Mario Lemieux.

- Charlie Simmer's consistency in this category is very impressive. The best mark ever and 4 of the top 50, including two that came after he left L.A. and no longer had Dionne on his line.

 

[Canadiens1958]

So...........

Being a tightly-guarded defenseman also means you're having to shoot around the blocks/bodies a bit more often. The good ones do this instead of blasting into a set of shin pads, often resulting in turnover breakaways.

If the d-man is properly squared away to the net his vision is such that he can see and adjust. His puck handling / shooting decisions are better and more accurate.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Video Scouting

There is luck in single-season SH% -- look at Jason Blake's 40-goal season. Because a player's SH% goes up or down from a season to another doesn't necessarily mean his body position changed, though I'm not going to argue with you that it's a factor. If you disagree that luck's a factor, explain why SH% bounces around so much from one year to another.

Vanek's career SH%, by season: 12.3% 18.1% 15.0% 19.0% 15.4%
Joe Thornton: 9.1% 12.5% 13.5% 20.4% 14.5% 18.4% 12.3% 14.9% 10.3% 16.3% 18.0% 14.2%. He had 114 points in the 10.3% season. Poor body positioning?
Mike Ribeiro (full seasons only): 19.4% 12.3% 16.2% 25.2% 13.5% 12.3%. 25.2% is the best SH% in the NHL in the past 10 years. Surely there's some luck with that number?

Video scouting. Teams break down the areas from which players score goals and concentrate on keeping them away from the comfort zones.

Blake's season showed an adjustment from a pedestrian career which the league figured out and he returned back to his level.

Thornton's SH% is high when he plays a power forward game in front of the net. If he plays a perimeter game it slides down.

Ribeiro - watched him since atom hockey. Without getting into great detail the further you keep him from the net the lower his SH% will be.Does not have a quality shot but is a very effective perimeter playmaker.

Vanek. If you let him use his speed to get to the net he will score.Keep him further away from the net and his numbers go down.

 

[Master_Of_Districts]

Luck is not a factor. Proper body position - squared away to the net, is the main factor,sense of time and space is also very important.

Players practice their shot etc but often they ignore body position or recognizing what the options are in any given situation.

So luck has no influence on season-to-season variation in player shooting percentage?

That's an untenable position if I've ever heard one.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Yawn..............

So luck has no influence on season-to-season variation in player shooting percentage?

That's an untenable position if I've ever heard one.

Actually you would have to prove the positive that LUCK does have an influence as opposed to asking others to prove a negative.

Good luck.

 

[Professor Dangles]

wasnt jason blake the second highest shot total a year ago or something?

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Actually you would have to prove the positive that LUCK does have an influence as opposed to asking others to prove a negative.

Good luck.

I don't think LUCK is the proper word to use here. Referring to the original comment... there can be quite a bit of VARIATION in a player's SPCT from season to season from a wide array of factors that the player himself does not have much control over. A change in SPCT can be caused by a very wide array of factors. Many of these factors are a direct result of the player himself, like learning proper body position, better use of space, quickness of release, accuracy, etc. Many other factors are not a result of the player himself...a player's team's offensive strategy (some teams may focus on getting low percentage shots on net that generate rebound opportunities or are designed to use screens more than others), how your opponents defend you, running into a hot/cold goaltender, quality of linemates, number of empty net goals, amount of power play time (and more importantly role on the power play), etc.

All of these things can change a lot from season to season, and I believe the person that originally made the "luck" comment was referring to these. How can we tell which factors are responsible for the SPCT variation? Is it the factors the player is responsible for or is it the "lucky" ones? We cannot, but over the course of several season, or a career they should get evened out, and we can get a little better idea of the player's ability.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

If the d-man is properly squared away to the net his vision is such that he can see and adjust. His puck handling / shooting decisions are better and more accurate.

I don't follow. I mean, I follow, but I said also, not one or the other.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Well................

Being a tightly-guarded defenseman also means you're having to shoot around the blocks/bodies a bit more often. The good ones do this instead of blasting into a set of shin pads, often resulting in turnover breakaways.

Saw the also but I also saw the having. No one player has to do anything on the ice. They are either too lazy or unaware of the necessary adjustment - keep the feet moving , side to side a yard or two, adjust the body. The one's who are not lazy and can think the game on the ice manage.