Should we be worried about shots against?

[Micklebot]

Well, that's just silly. We've played more games than most teams. The Leafs are #1 in scoring chances against and they're first.

Then switch it to rates, we're still 7th worst. Not sure why you'd bring up the leafs, everyone agrees their defense is garbage, they just have the talent to sustainably outscore their defensive woes.

We're in the bottom half of the league in pretty much all the underlying metrics. It's early for sure, and the sample isn't representative of "league average competition" but getting caved in by great opposition is still a bad omen.

Long story short, the team needs to tighten up it's defensive play, get the puck out of their end quicker, you can't rope a dope in hockey, there simply is no such thing as conserving energy by playing defense.

 

[swiftwin]

Then switch it to rates, we're still 7th worst. Not sure why you'd bring up the leafs, everyone agrees their defense is garbage, they just have the talent to sustainably outscore their defensive woes.

We're in the bottom half of the league in pretty much all the underlying metrics. It's early for sure, and the sample isn't representative of "league average competition" but getting caved in by great opposition is still a bad omen.

Long story short, the team needs to tighten up it's defensive play, get the puck out of their end quicker, you can't rope a dope in hockey, there simply is no such thing as conserving energy by playing defense.

We were in the bottom half in corsi in 2017 too, as were the Pens, and the Ducks. Yet all three of us made the conference finals, and the Pens won the cup. Heck, the Pens were 4th worst shots against in 2016-17. Caps were 24th in corsi last year.

I'm just not a believer is shot metrics.

 

[swiftwin]

I looked it up, we're 16th in High Danger Scoring Chances Against 5v5 (per game).

Not great, but far from the worst. Certainly room for improvement. But also considering the high powered offenses we've played against so far, and our inexperience, it's alright.


edit: nvm, someone else did more work than me on this:
https://hfboards.mandatory.com/posts/150872907/

SA/60 at ES : 31st
SCA/60 at ES : 9th
HDCA/60 at ES : 11th

We're 9th best at limiting scoring chances against.

 

[Xspyrit]

Ooops, looks like I have been beaten by swiftwin

EDIT: actually nvm, looks like you got it from my post in the GDT lol

Ottawa has given up the 3rd most scoring chances in the league, according to Natural Stat Trick - Glossary. I wouldn't say they're low quality shots.

Anderson has been good and we've taken advantage of opportunistic scoring. Is it sustainable? Probably not, but we'll see.

What is important is /60 at ES

CA/60 : 29th
GA/60 : 24th
SA/60 : 31st
xGA/60 : 16th
SCA/60 : 9th
HDCA/60 : 11th

On the PK

CA/60 : 29th
GA/60 : 19th
SA/60 : 30th
xGA/60 : 27th
SCA/60 : 12th
HDCA/60 : 28th


I'm quoting a post I just made in the Stars GDT

The thing is most teams get good to great goaltending... Shots against is not important, scoring chances and high danger chances is what's important.

Team Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick

13th in SV%
11th in SCSV% (ES)
14th HDSV% (ES)
22nd in SCSV% (PK)
14th in HDSV% (ES)

Also, something to keep in mind. Example, 5 mins into the first period vs Dallas, a bad Anderson's giveaway leads to 2 shots against and then a PP. Problem is that it's not an isolated event. If our goalies were able to play the puck properly, I assure you that there would be less shots against.

Now let's look at the quantity. It's hard to get a good read because not every team has played the same amount of games so I had to Excel my way into these numbers. Look at that it's pretty telling :

SA/60 at ES : 31st
HDCA/60 at ES : 11th

Unless I really screwed up, it's actually pretty incredible. A lot of shots, but controlling the quality of chances. You need to be really good to play in the NHL, same goes for goalies. Routine shots are not that hard to stop, even for an amateur goalie it's not that hard. So despite the narrative, Sens have actually been good defensively. Andy and Condon gave up several weak goals at the beginning. Only one (vs LA) from Andy in the last 2 games. Make the routine saves, make a few great saves and you give your team a good chance to win the game.

 

[solidprospect]

Moved to 29th in shots against after last game.

 

[Masked]

Only thing worth worrying about is losses. The rest is just distracting and annoying noise.

 

[Sensung]

31st in shots against
31st in goals against per game.

Ya, we should be worried about the fact that we give up 40 shots per game.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

ya.


boucher needs to understand that we don't have the team to play some dumbass intricate defensive system. let these guys attack... let them join the new nhl lol... what happens we get burned on a counter attack trust your f***ing goalie... I would rather andy be facing 25-30 shots on the rush then I would have him facing 50-55 shots with the other team in our zone for 4 f***ing minutes lmao.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Didn't his first year here he remedied the shots against to a degree? Last year we sat back too much, this year we are more aggressive but are getting pelted with rubber, again. It's like he can't multitask or something and has to focus on one thing at a time.

 

[OmniSens]

Obviously... Every team should worry about their shot against when it's this high.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Didn't his first year here he remedied the shots against to a degree? Last year we sat back too much, this year we are more aggressive but are getting pelted with rubber, again. It's like he can't multitask or something and has to focus on one thing at a time.

We had defencemen

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

We had defencemen

You don't have to be an elite top 4 defender to challenge someone at the point do you? Anyone can skate out to do that

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

You don't have to be an elite top 4 defender to challenge someone at the point do you? Anyone can skate out to do that

seems like you have it all figured out

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

seems like you have it all figured out

I don't think I am the only one who see's this as an issue.

 

[Sensung]

Didn't his first year here he remedied the shots against to a degree? Last year we sat back too much, this year we are more aggressive but are getting pelted with rubber, again. It's like he can't multitask or something and has to focus on one thing at a time.

The roster is not NHL calibre

Our D is one if the worst iced in the past 20 years.

 

[Tuna99]

The roster is not NHL calibre

Our D is one if the worst iced in the past 20 years.

We have 3 rookies playing every night 2 are playing top pair minutes and one is top 3 in NHL scoring.

I love our young D, it's what I watch this year

 

[Tuna99]

I don't think I am the only one who see's this as an issue.

A checking center like Fisher is really important right now. Someone to handle the D zone draws. Seems like the D gets hit with speed on an attack with open players on both wings, just having a solid center who can force passes early and disrupt the tape to tape passes and to slow the speed of the attack would be a huge help right now.

 

[swiftwin]

A checking center like Fisher is really important right now. Someone to handle the D zone draws. Seems like the D gets hit with speed on an attack with open players on both wings, just having a solid center who can force passes early and disrupt the tape to tape passes and to slow the speed of the attack would be a huge help right now.

Smith and Pageau. Their losses are huge. We've had to rely way too much on Pyatt and Paajarvi in Smith's absence.

 

[Beville]

I’m already used to it after last season..

We lost Methot, and shots went up. We didn’t add anyone else this season, what did we expect

 

[Micklebot]

HDCA and SCA are now coming towards CA and shots against, likely they were ranked better due to sampling issues. This team bleeds chances.

Of note, when Boucher first came, we went from 2nd last in the league in 5v5 shots against (under Cameron) to 14th then slide to 27th his second year averaging 32 shots per 60 mins (Karlsson hurt, Methot gone). Boucher I believe was in charge of the defense the first two years. This year, Boucher is running the Offense and no longer in charge of the D, and we're allowing 37 shots per 60...

We really are allowing a historically high amount of shots, I went back to the 50's and couldn't find a team that allowed more per game than we're on pace for, and that includes some really bad expansion teams.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

No, all is well.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Shot Attempts / 60

This is a team defense / systems issue primarily imo. And some of you want Crawford running the show.

 

[Micklebot]

Shot Attempts / 60

This is a team defense / systems issue primarily imo. And some of you want Crawford running the show.

Yeah, I mean, part of it is personnel, but there have been worse groups. It's funny though, I felt the defense was worse under MacLean, it had that completely lost in our own end feeling that this current group doesn't exhibit as much. But at it's worst, MacLean's system was never allowing this much.

 

[Yak]

Boucher system is not working with these rookies , even though he is not running the D this year he is the head coach. At this point Anderson is going to be ready to retire or get injured, is rather crazy. Face it Anderson has bailed out this team a lot this year with amount of shots we have faced, not saying Anderson is playing All-Star or anything but facing these kind of shots every night and something is going to give real soon.

Boucher needs to get his 1-3-1 system back in place real fast show these kids how to play defense again cause defense wins championships , scoring will never be a issue but good goaltending and good defense are the building blacks of a rebuild.

 

[slamigo]

I don't think I am the only one who see's this as an issue.

It’s the winger’s job to take away shots from the point. Problem is that GB has everyone collapse to ‘protect the house’ and they give them free perimeter shots with the assumption that those are low percentage.
It isn’t a winning strategy so far.